Eclipse Theatre Company, the only Midwest theatre company to feature one playwright in one season, will begin their 2019 Christopher Durang Season this spring with a production of Baby with the Bathwater, with Derek Van Barham directing.
The 2019 Christopher Durang Season begins with the bitingly satiric black comedy, Baby with the Bathwater. As the play begins Helen and John gaze proudly at their new offspring, a bit disappointed that it doesn't speak English and too polite to check its sex. So they decide that the child is a girl and name it Daisy-which leads to all manner of future emotional and personality problems when it turns out that Daisy is actually a boy. Thereafter, in a series of brilliantly theatrical and wildly hilarious scenes, the saga of Daisy's struggle to establish his identity continues, despite his parents' growing obliviousness. At the outset there is a zany nanny who gives him a lethal toy to play with; then the small problem of Daisy's penchant, as a toddler, for throwing himself in front of buses; then his bizarre problems in school; and, finally, the sessions with his analyst which enable him, at last, to accept his maleness and stop wearing dresses. In the end the play comes full circles as the former Daisy and his young bride fondly regard their own baby-forgiving of the past but determined not to repeat its calamitous mistakes.
Baby with the Bathwater runs approximately one and a half hours, with one ten-minute intermission.
Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport Ave., Chicago, IL 60657
Some street parking; Wellington El stop (Brown). Pay and Display parking at Saint Alphonsus Catholic Church lots on Southport and on Oakdale.
Disability accessible.
Opening: Sunday, April 14, 2019, 3 p.m. (reception following)
Previews Thursday-Saturday, April 11-13, at 7:30 p.m.
Runs Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m.
Closes Sunday, May 19, 2019
TICKETS: 773-935-6875, Athenaeum Box Office (open noon to last curtain, Wednesday-Sunday)
Online tickets at www.eclipsetheatre.com
$30 for all regular performances (half-price rush tickets available)
$20 for previews; $10 for industry members at previews with headshot/card
$20 for each ticket in groups of ten or more, and for seniors (with ID)
$20 for students (with ID)
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