It wasn't that old-time religion that drew record audiences to side-by-side plays about Joan of Arc—The Lark and Saint Joan—during our subarctic winter ( the latter outselling even the popular Pygmalion for ShawChicago ), but her status as western culture's first female war veteran. How else to account for the abundance of warrior heroes dominating the spring schedules?
These include the gamer-turned-bomber in the recently closed Leveling Up at Steppenwolf ( cross your fingers for a summer remount at Theater on the Lake ), as well as currently running productions of American Myth ( American Blues at the Greenhouse through April 6; 773-404-7336 ), Ithaka ( Infusion at the Chopin through April 13; 773-278-1500 ), Rites and Sacrifices ( Idle Muse's update of Euripedes at the Flatiron, through March 23; 773-340-9438 ) and Three Soldiers ( Red Theatre at the Den through March 23, www.thedentheatre.com ).
Upcoming sagas of men-in-arms include Henry V at Chicago Shakespeare ( April 29-June 15, 312-595-5600 ) and Water by the Spoonful at Court ( through April 6; 773-753-4472 ).
This doesn't mean that the Home Front gets short shrift. Lynn Nottage's Ruined enjoys its first post-premiere Chicago revival under the auspices of Eclipse Theatre ( April 21-May 25; 773-935-6875 ), while Remy Bumppo's Our Class ( April 7-May 11; 773-404-7336 ) offers a glimpse of social upheaval preceding World War II as troubling as that following a revolution in Ariel Dorfman's Death and the Maiden at Victory Gardens ( June 13-July 13; 773-871-3000 ).
However distant the threat of hostile invasion may seem from Promethean's steampunktrimmed Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead ( subtitled "Waiting For Hamlet" and running April 18-May 24; 773-935-6875 ), Interrobang's Ibsen-in-Berlin Doll's House Project ( May 8-June 8; 773-935-6875 ) or Redtwist's Look Back in Anger ( May 24-June 15; 773- 728-7529 ), its repercussions are manifest. Marching bands can't drown out domestic issues,
though—Teatro Vista's A View from the Bridge explores the plight of assimilating immigrants— no different today in than in 1959 when Arthur Miller wrote of Italians in Red Hook—while Will Dunne's The Roper continues at The Den through April 13 ( www.thedentheatre. com ), touches upon anti-Irish prejudice in America.
You don't have to be a foreigner to feel alienated: Shattered Globe's Mill Fire documents Sally Nemeth's account of Alabama factoryworker widows ( April 24-June 7; 773-975- 8150 ), Raven Theatre's Vieux Carré brings us Tennessee Williams' group portrait of boardinghouse residents in New Orleans ( May 6-June 28; 773-338-2177 ) and Writers Theatre's Dance of Death, Strindberg's observations on a marriage in decay ( April 9-July 20, 847-242-6000 ), but look for the season to be dominated by individual anomie. The protagonist of Congo Square's King Hedley II is an ex-convict ( through April 6; 773-935-6875 ), that of House Theatre's Dorian a vain youth ( April 14-May 28; 773- 278-1500 ) and that of the Babes With Blades' L'Imbecile—based on a Victor Hugo story sharing roots with Verdi's Rigoletto—a jester to a cruel monarch ( April 12-May 10; 773-904- 0391 ).
For those wanting to celebrate with something more sunshiny, the Dead Writers Theatre Collective presents Michael Bloom's page-tostage transfer of Jane Austen's Emma ( April 23-May 25; 773-327-5252 ), Northlight presents Neil Simon's autobiographical Lost in Yonkers ( May 2-June 8, 847-673-6300 ) and Timeline brings us Juno, the 1959 musical adaptation of J.M. Synge's Juno and the Paycock ( April 23-July 27; 773-281-8463 ). Also, Fox Valley Rep resurrects Cheaper by the Dozen, Frank Gilbreth's nostalgic memoir of his 12 children ( March 27-May 18; 630-584-6342 ).
The show to mark on your calendars NOW, however, is the long-awaited remount of Hit The Wall!, sponsored by the Chicago Commercial Collective and reuniting most of the original artists that made Ike Holter's close-upand- sweaty panorama of the Stonewall Riots a runaway success inaugurating Steppenwolf's Garage Rep in 2012 ( April 30-June 29; 773- 404-7336 ). If you see only one show before Memorial Day, make it this one.
