How intimidating and sobering it must be for a playwright facing that blank page/screen on day one of creating an epic play. Whether tackling a heroic journey, an inflection point in history, or a multi-generational human saga of choices and consequences, the playwright must envision how the big ideas will play out on a reasonably sized stage with a finite run time and practicable cast size—and be both “produceable” and gloriously compelling. Here’s a sampling of epic plays we’ve experienced that we’ve found both thrilling in the moment and intensely memorable thereafter.
(in alphabetical order)
All Our Tragic by Sean Graney produced by The Hypocrites in 2014: Combining all 32 extant Greek tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides into a single twelve-hour play doesn’t sound like a sure-fire formula for box office magic. Adapter and director Sean Graney’s vision was to recreate an ancient Greek festival in which citizens spend the day conversing and dining together, focused around theatrical performances. The resulting marathon show was a surprise hit, however, with not only Chicagoans but theatre lovers from all over the country flocking to immerse themselves in an entire day of astonishingly vivid theatre, made even more so by the shared communal experience. By weaving the many common characters and story lines from the original plays into a single narrative, the relationships among them were easier to follow and much the richer for it. Another of Graney’s singular contributions was adding many hilarious touches of humor, although to be sure the body count still piled up and gallons of stage blood were expended. The great success of the show prompted a remount in 2015, which was also highly successful (and included a herculean understudy performance by Tommy Rapley, described on our Favorite Understudies page). We couldn’t get enough of this theatrical feast, and between the original run and the remount, we saw the entire 12-hour show five times! The universal themes of these timeless works—repeating past mistakes, personal vs. public good, the domino effect of human actions—have stayed with us and still factor into our perspectives on family relationships, politics, and sense of community.
Producing a show of such prodigious proportions places extreme demands on all involved. Adapter Graney spent about three years writing the 1,200-page script. All of the actors played multiple parts and had mountains of dialogue to memorize, along with extensive choreography for the many fights and battle scenes. And imagine the number of costumes, as well as lighting and sound cues, for nine hours of actual running time (the remaining three hours was for meals and other breaks). In addition, a performance space was needed with seating capacity for upwards of 200 patrons (to make the show financially viable), and with sufficient backstage and dressing room space to accommodate 23 actors and the hundreds of costumes, hats, shoes, wigs, props, etc. used in the performance. Not coincidentally, we had been working for the preceding 18 months with Ryan Martin of the Den Theatre in developing just such a new theatre space, now called the Heath Main Stage. The confluence of these two massive projects was almost too perfect, as the performing arts venue license from the City of Chicago for the new space came through only one day before the first preview of All Our Tragic (whew)! Needless to say, we were thrilled that this signal theatrical event inaugurated the Heath Main Stage, which was created to enable bold new theatrical ventures.
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, adapted by Matt Foss, presented by Red Tape Theatre in a co-production with Greenhouse Theatre and the University of Toledo in 2019: As we sat in an upstairs performance space at Greenhouse Theatre, we wondered how, on this modest stage, writer/director Matt Foss and company could convey what front-line soldiers experienced during WWI. The answer: assemble a fully committed and inclusive cast of amazing actors, use ingenious movement to convey everything from the monotony to the terror of a soldier’s life, and employ unorthodox props and staging to create the battlefields, hospitals, and countryside. For example, several vintage pianos provided barricades, bridges, and hiding places, as well as sound effects. By focusing on individual foot soldiers, the narrative reduced the vast geopolitical scope of a world war to a relatable human (not to say humane) story, in which the chaotic existence and stark vulnerability of the soldiers in the trenches was palpable. The result was the closest we’ve ever felt to war in a theatre.
Angels in America by Tony Kushner: This gargantuan, two-part “Gay Fantasia on National Themes,” about the onset of the AIDS epidemic and the political currents surrounding it, is mind-boggling in its scope and virtuosity, making it difficult to fathom all of its numerous threads in a single experience of its seven-hour running time. Part 1, Millennium Approaches, premiered in 1991 and Part 2, Perestroika, premiered in 1992. Our first opportunity to see Angels was a very capable production at the Station Theatre in Urbana in 1996, where the two parts were spread over consecutive evenings. We next saw a couple of excellent college productions at Illinois State University (Part 1 in 1998, Part 2 in 2000) and at DePaul in 2000, the latter of which was the first time we saw both parts on the same day, separated only by a dinner break. A month later we saw our first professional production, a fine effort by Buffalo Theatre Ensemble in Glyn Ellyn. Another notable production was the characteristically interesting interpretation by The Hypocrites in 2006, with a memorably explosive performance by Kurt Ehrmann as Roy Cohn. Perhaps the most ambitious production we have seen was by Court Theatre in 2012, featuring searing performances by Rob Lindley as Prior and Larry Yando in a Jeff Award-winning turn as Roy Cohn, with a superb supporting cast. The continuing relevance of this masterwork was reaffirmed by a breathtaking production we saw at Repertory Theatre of St. Louis in 2019, with Chicago-based Tommy Rapley serving as associate director and violence, intimacy, and movement director.
For a play ostensibly wedded to the 1980s, Angels in America somehow seems remarkably timeless and remains highly relevant today, as venality, discrimination, and callous disregard for human suffering remain rampant. Part of Kushner’s genius was in particularizing his cosmic themes to relatable characters, whether sympathetic or reprehensible. We continue to find Angels to be a mind-blowing theatrical experience unlike any other. It was our first significant education on the AIDS crisis and the individuals and communities who were at ground zero of the tragedy, and opened the door for us to empathize with people who were invisible in the environment where we grew up. In doing so, Angels greatly expanded our notion of what theatre can be and do.
Highly recommended reading: Angels in America: The Complete Oral History (How Tony Kushner’s play became the defining work of American art of the last 25 years)
August: Osage County by Tracy Letts produced by Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 2007: Per Tolstoy, the Weston family of August: Osage County is uniquely dysfunctional. Their encounter with an uncertain present, leading backward to a devastating past, forms the basis for an epic family drama worthy of the Greeks, Shakespeare, or O’Neill. But unlike a revival of a masterpiece from the distant past, this play was new, and thus seeing the original Steppenwolf production was a landmark theatrical experience for us. Everything about the production was larger than life, from Todd Rosenthal’s monumental set to the outsized cast of mostly Steppenwolf ensemble members (plus an incendiary lead performance by Deanna Dunagan as matriarch Violet Weston), to the three and a half hour running time. This was theatre at its most unforgettable, provoking thoughts not only about one’s own family relationships, but also about the persistent potential of theatre to shock and renew us. The now legendary Steppenwolf production went on to a lengthy run on Broadway (where it won multiple Tony awards), as well as stops in London and Sydney, followed by a national tour (with Estelle Parsons as Violet) and a major motion picture adaptation starring Meryl Streep.
In contrast to the epic scale of the original production at Steppenwolf and the national tour (which we saw in the Cadillac Palace Theatre), two phenomenally moving intimate productions of August: Osage County are described on our memorable surprises page.
Cosmic Events Are Upon Us: The Romanov Play by Keely Leonard, produced by Waltzing Mechanics in 2016: In addition to our interest in history, we were intrigued by the idea of a storefront theatre company tackling the epic story of the last tsar and his family, as the Russian Revolution unfolded just outside the palace walls. We never imagined that writer/director Keely Leonard, the design team, and the cast of 20 could elucidate both the ordinariness of the ruling family and the world-changing revolution they precipitated. Yet somehow, in the cavernous 80’x55’ auditorium of a Chicago church, their depiction of everything from family picnics to battle scenes (aided by Myra Su’s brilliant shadow puppet design) captivated the audience for 3+ hours. Attending this sprawling world premiere, we were educated, entertained, impelled to think about present-day parallels, and left with an unforgettable theatre experience.
Father Comes Home From the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3) by Suzan-Lori Parks, produced by Goodman Theatre in 2018: The brilliantly written Father Comes Home, in the hands of extraordinary director Niegel Smith and a similarly gifted cast and crew, demonstrated how three hours in a theatre can change the rest of your life. The experience brought into sharp focus the naïveté of viewing racism in America apart from the framework of history; otherwise you fail to grasp the depth if its roots and its entanglement in every aspect of life in this country. In the years since we saw Father Comes Home, we’ve experienced many masterful productions of other plays that have explored racial injustice in this country from a historical or contemporary perspective (many described in our Justice Matters and It’s Personal pages). In all cases, we’ve been more open to their veracity and urgency thanks to what we absorbed from Father Comes Home.
The First Deep Breath by Lee Edward Colston II, at Victory Gardens Theater in 2019: In the Victory Gardens Theater lobby immediately following the world premiere opening of The First Deep Breath, we heard many conversations citing analogies to Tracy Letts’ August: Osage County (another 3.5-hour three-act saga about flawed people, relationships, and family, with a shatteringly unforgettable dinner table scene). But no one had ever seen such a sweeping family epic about a Black family. Even though Breath was our 3,900th show, this was our first opportunity to glimpse a remarkable range of human experiences—ambition, choosing whom to love, (in)fidelity, religious hypocrisy, loneliness, dementia, and the color of justice) through something other than the lens of a white family. And yet, this play with a theatrically groundbreaking combination of viewpoint and scope also pondered family issues anyone could readily relate to: the compromises individuals make to keep peace in the family, to fulfill family obligations, to suppress difficult discussions, and to deal with parental baggage/expectations. In the context of family, is anyone ever their complete authentic self? Being present at the premiere of this incredibly special play was a once-in-a-lifetime event for us, made even more memorable by the fact that this was Lee Colston’s first play, with the perfect combination of sympatico director (Steve H. Broadnax III) and inspired cast to bring it to life.
Into the Beautiful North by Karen Zacarías, adapted from the novel by Luis Alberto Urrea, produced by 16th Street Theater in 2017: With a plot inspired by the film The Magnificent Seven (which in turn is based on Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 film Seven Samurai), you figure that containing Into the Beautiful North on any stage—much less the intimate basement location of 16th Street Theater—would be a pipe dream at best. Co-directors Ann Filmer and Miguel Nuñez assembled the ideal cast and crew (including scenic designer Joanna Iwanicka and lighting designer Cat Wilson) to produce a show that was cinematic in scope. The lead character’s search for seven good men to protect her Mexican village takes her and her comrades to Tijuana, San Diego, Kankakee, and other points north. We experience their train rides, border crossings, and the range of good, bad, and ugly treatment from the people they encounter along the way. The play’s ingenious combination of humor, idealism, thorny realities, and underlying serious themes is ultimately a glorious celebration of the human spirit.
Marie Antoinette and the Magical Negroes by Terry Guest, produced by The Story Theatre in 2022: Nine days before the 5/13/20 pandemic lockdown, we attended an impressive staged reading of Marie Antoinette and the Magical Negroes—with no inkling of the seismic shifts coming in the intervening two years before the play’s opening night. By then, playwright Terry Guest’s 2020 description of his themes and intentions proved to be even more urgent and salient than anyone anticipated: “Marie Antionette & the Magical Negroes is a play about rage. Revolt. Revolution. It is about what happens when black people grow tired of sitting down and turning the other cheek. What are we left to do? Do we scream? Pray? Should we be peaceful? Should we riot? Can the tools we have used in the past possibly work for the future or do we need to write a new script? … I hope to explore these questions in a way that is as messy and complicated as public execution.” Indeed, the 2022 production (directed by the playwright, with a multi-talented, all-in cast) was messy, complicated, soul-stirring, deeply thought-provoking, frequently hilarious, unsettling, and took us on an epic journey from the French Revolution into the marrow of today’s most crucial issues.
Relentless by Tyla Abercrumbie, produced by TimeLine Theatre in 2022 (at Theater Wit, followed by an extended run at Goodman): Relentless begins as an engrossing family drama, with sisters returning to their childhood home to settle their deceased mother’s estate—but unlike every other family drama we’d seen, the protagonists are affluent African Americans in 1919. Against the backdrop of the Black Victorian era, the Red Summer of white-on-Black violence in cities across America, a persistent pandemic, and ever-present racism, the two sisters and the two men in their lives engage in some of the most deeply affecting and thought-provoking conversations ever written for the stage. The playwright weaves the threads of this play (including a crucial backstory from the deceased mother’s enslavement as a young girl) into a finely woven tapestry of the relentless connections between the injustices of the past and the harsh realities of the present. Ron OJ Parson directed a cast that brilliantly brought these multi-layered individual characters to life.
The Wizards by Ricardo Gamboa, produced by Concrete Content in conjunction with Chicago Latino Theater Alliance, et al in 2022: We first experienced The Wizards as a staged reading in the Goodman Theatre’s New Stages Festival in 2018, directed by Azar Kazemi. The play intertwined the Chicago stories of a 1970s Mexican-American Motown cover band and a 2018 Brown and Black genderqueer couple. That synopsis doesn’t even begin to capture the play’s personal and historical perspective on racism, its epic scope, the clever quick-fire dialog—and humor. In short, the play sizzled, and as we subsequently learned, we weren’t the only ones eager to see a full production! The play’s stunning production in 2022, directed by Katrina Dion, was completely sold out, despite repeatedly adding seating capacity and additional performances. The night we attended, the lobby was full of people who had waited an hour or more in hopes of getting a seat. The play was performed at the A.P.O. Cultural Center in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood, where both the play itself and the real-life stories that motivated the playwright took place. The play had amazingly grown in both breadth and depth in the years since the reading at Goodman, and we felt lucky and honored to experience this play with hands-down the most engaged audience we had ever seen. The fact that essentially all of the attendees were several decades younger than us made us feel positively buoyant about the future of theatre, when playwrights like Gamboa tell honest stories that reflect the communities from which they arise.
Recommended reading: The Wizards program included bios of the fabulous cast and crew; articles about the A.P.O. Cultural Center and the history of Pilsen; and much more!
