Walker's 'Beautiful City' Promises But Can't Deliver

Theater Mir, in association with the Chicago DCA Theater's 2010 season, presents the Chicago premiere of Beautiful City.  The production, written by Canadian author George F. Walker and directed by Rob Chambers, runs now through April 3, 2010 at Chicago DCA Theater's Storefront Theater (66 E. Randolph).  

"This is the future" begins what the DCA describes as a "darkly comic fable" about the failures of urban development.  If this is the future, then I guess we're all going to be stuck in EPCOT. Sure! Cities have problems, but its citizens, even the poor ones, are glossy and every social ill is wrapped up in a pretty unrealistic way.  This city is not Chicago.  In fact, I can't imagine this city as any city in the United States or Canada for that fact.   Even Toronto can't be this goody-goody!  This play promised a comic exploration of the themes of Plato's Republic but delivers nothing except the playwright's soap box (as evident by the final scene).  Was this really written by one of Canada's most celebrated playwrights?

There were some questionable technical issues in the show as well.  Directed in thrust, I still found the actors upstaged in a couple of scenes and the transitions weren't their cleanest.  Nevertheless, there were a couple of acting standouts.  Yosh Hayashi created a wonderful character arc as Tony Raft, the city's major developer and sleazy son of the city's central mob family.  Hayashi was also responsible for finding the few humorous moments in this "darkly comic fable."  Rachel Slavick found some lovely dimensions to Mary Raft, the head of the family, which I'm sure is a pretty one-noted character as written by Walker.  Finally, Mira Vasiljevic was flat out wonderful as Gina Mae Sabatini.  Sure, the actress playing her daughter looked the same age as her but kudos to Vasiljevic for grounding one of the most ridiculous characters I have ever seen on stage.  Walker treats Gina Mae purely as a plot device, but Vasiljevic was able to find her humanity and make her entertaining as opposed to absurd. 

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