Chicago Danztheatre Ensemble closes their 8th season with an updated theatrical production of their original adaptation of "The Yellow Wallpaper." First produced six years ago, this iteration of the play continues to bring the short story to life through new text adaptations; lurid and complex wallpaper descriptions (portrayed through voice and movement by a chorus of four women); new staging and set design; and, building on the original music composed for the first production, Joe Griffin's new sound design adds to the eerie backdrop for production.
"The Yellow Wallpaper" is based on Charlotte Perkins Gilman's gripping 1890 short story of one woman's battle with her own rapidly vanishing sanity in the throes of postpartum depression. Given the "rest cure" by her physician husband, she retires to her bedroom where she becomes hypnotically fixated on the yellow wallpaper patterns, which eventually take on the forms of other trapped women. The Woman (played by Beth Czechanski) depicts her depression and confinement through both monologues and modern dance as she hypnotically follows the patterns in the paper. Her husband John (played by David Goodloe), and her sister-in-law Jeanine (played by Morgan Christiansen) care deeply for her but are left hopeless when they see her insanity intensify.
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