Playwright: Kristin Idaszak
At: The Buena at the Pride Arts Center, 4147 N. Broadway. Tickets: $25. Runs through: April 29
Produced by Cloudgate Theatre in collaboration with The Syndicate, playwright Kristin Idaszak's thought-provoking Chicago-based play Another Jungle starts its world premiere this month. Inspired by Upton Sinclair's 1906 novel The Jungle, which revolutionized food safety in its time, Another Jungle attempts to refocus back on Sinclair's original intent to expose the exploitation of Chicago's immigrant working class in the early 20th century, while acknowledging how such abuses still persist today.
A play within a play, the audience has come to see a new play about the strife of Polish immigrants working in Chicago's early 20th-century slaughterhouses, only to find the play cancelled and its writer, played by Ellenor Riley-Condit, attempting to save the production by presenting a slideshow about her Polish immigrant heritage in its place. Through flashbacks to earlier in the evening, the audience sees how the play fell apart, including an eerie rape scene gone too far in an attempt to re-enact the darker parts of the writer's tragic family history.
While adept at carrying the play, Riley-Condit's portrayal of the writer feels overcalculated at the beginning, only becoming believable once the action develops. Gregory Geffrard, however, portrays the stage manager so convincingly that one forgets he is acting. Equally, Paula Ramirez's rendition of Ines, an actress and the writer's lesbian lover, shows great understanding of the subtleties of conflict with someone you love. And Rich Holton as Mike, an actor portraying a villainous sweatshop boss, pokes great fun at actors who take their craft too seriously.
Audience members are cautioned that this play includes depictions of sexual assault, as well as strong language and animal carcasses. Fight choreographer Gaby Labotka, and actors Ramirez and Holton are to be commended for simulating an attempted rape scene that is frighteningly realistic. Set designer Shaun Renfro and lighting designer Jared Gooding should also be applauded for a stage evoking a Chicago slaughterhouse that draws parallels to the set of a horror movie. And director Tara Branham's innovative blocking reconfigures of The Buena stage, with the action at the center of the intimate space and audience members seated facing each other at the two sides. Surprisingly, seeing the reactions of audience members seated across only adds to the production's impact.
Another Jungle raises many questions surrounding corruption, abuse of the working class and minorities, and the parts these issues play in the fabric of Chicago history. It also casts a sharp lens on the question of where the line sits between consent and rape. While Idaszak offers no clear answers to these questions, perhaps the continued discourse is just as important, as our city and society still struggle toward reconciliation of these important issues.