Dinner theater is usually dry chicken and a mediocre dessert and with a standard play you may have seen before. Habakkuk Theatre sets this sometimes hackneyed formula aside and comes up with a delicious immersive evening with excellent food. For this new iteration of dinner theater, they engaged the fearless Dado to direct Rosemary with Ginger. Dado is a master at drawing out open transformational performances from actors and this show set in 1993 is no exception: Abigail Madden as Ginger and Tina Shelley as Rosemary are powerful and moving as sisters closing down the family diner even as dysfunction closes in around them. Like Carmy and Richie they battle longstanding differences that began in childhood, and it's clear they are devoted to one another, but struggling with toxic relationships: there’s a competitive edge enrobed in love that is characteristic of sisters who have navigated trauma together. As they try to fill out a form that will recognize their mom, you come to know that the trauma is generational. The story will end hopefully but perhaps not happily or neatly. This short two-hander by Edward Allan Baker is a tribute to the complicated ties of sisterhood.
You will have to go to Berwyn to see this gem. And unlike watching the tv show, you get to actually eat the food! Monse’s Tapas Bar (right next to Fitzgerald’s, the storied music venue) is a sparse clean inviting space that makes creating a set unnecessary, and feels comfortable despite the row of gambling machines tucked away on one side. The food is worth the drive: the taco dinner included in the ticket price was fantastic. It was perfectly cooked steak and balanced ratio of cilantro and onion. I did not imbibe, preferring a delightful caffeinated Espresso with Chocolate that was as pretty as it was tasty– however the cocktail menu is inventive and based on what the table next to mine ordered, the drinks from the cash bar arrive bedecked in eye appealing garnishes: aesthetics are as important as flavor in my book when it comes to cocktails. I sort of imagine this as an updated kind of family place The Beef was before it went fine dining.
Rosemary with Ginger is playing Fridays through Mondays at Monse’s Tapas Bar, 6609 Roosevelt Road in Berwyn Il, only until September 30th so get going to get tickets! Go to
https://www.habakkuktheatre.org/coming-soon for tickets and info.
Photo by Greg Kolack
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