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TIP OF THE WEEK
Indian Ink

Nina Metz

The Midwest premiere of Tom Stoppard's "Indian Ink" at the Apple Tree Theatre is a resonating experience that stays with you days after the performance. The story, a political, cross-cultural romance of sorts, centers on Flora Crewe, a 35-year-old English poet traveling through India in 1930. As played by Susie McMonagle, her hair in a shinny, blond bob, her speech precise and biting, Crewe is the essence of a British bohemian—earthy and unpretentious under a glossy veneer. She's the kind of woman well versed in the manners of her time, but with little patience or interest in maintaining appearances. During her stay in the fictional province of Jummapur, Crewe befriends Nirad (the beautifully understated Anish Jethmalani), an Indian painter with a fascination for all things English. Their flirtatious, intellectual two-step results in some rather pithy observations about what it means to be Indian under British colonial rule. Interspersed throughout are scenes that take place in the mid-1980s, between Crewe's (now elderly) younger sister and an academic researching Crewe's background. Director Mark E. Lococo has assembled an ideal, perfectly modulated eleven-member cast and design team that match the play's sophistication and wit—the trek to Highland Park is well worth the effort.

"Indian Ink" runs through July 28 at Apple Tree Theatre, 595 Elm, Ste. 210, Highland Park, (847)432-4335.

(2002-07-18)

Also by Nina Metz

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Sometimes snooping around is the best way to get to know someone, or, know yourself. At least, this seems the premise behind playwright Carlos Murillo's "Offspring of the Cold War," the story of two thirtysomething neighbors, Miranda and Marcus, who begin the play as strangers and then gradually discover a shared history.
(2002-07-11)

NONFICTON REVIEW
John McEnroe, the great god of tennis temper tantrums, is one of those celebrities who says what he thinks, and fuck you if that's a problem. As a result, people tend to peg him as either smart and refreshingly blunt, devoid of the Hollywood bull that greases the wheels of "Entertainment Tonight," or simply put, a dick.
(2002-07-11)

TIP OF THE WEEK
The saving grace here is Zimmerman, whose efforts as director and co-librettist give the story of this famed seventeenth-century astronomer a poignancy and beauty that transcends Glass' minimalist music.
(2002-07-04)

TIP OF THE WEEK
Though not as stellar as last year's performance, the current production of "The Bomb-itty of Errors," a modern, hip-hop version of Shakespeare's "The Comedy of Errors," is a hell of a ride.
(2002-06-27)

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