Friday, August 23, 2013

Blood and Gifts - Chicago july 2013 part 5

Day 5, Play 5: Blood and Gifts at Timeline Theatre Company


Blood and Gifts
Chicago Premiere
BY J.T. ROGERSdirected by Nick Bowling



TimeLine Theatre Company's mission is to present stories inspired by history that connect with today's social and political issues, and they do this very well.

Timeline has a wonderful space to work in, and they use it to the max of it's possibilities. Blood and Gifts was performed in an Arena like way, audiences on both sides of the stage, the stage itself was not elevated, often functioning as a walk way in scenes where the actors 'walk and talk'. Setting was really very clever, we see 2 offices off stage that are sometimes included in the stagework, the actors use catwalks above the audience, all around the theater space to create little backstory scenes or stage Dramatic balcony scenes. Really, hat off for the set designer and director here.

KGB and CIA: Terry Hamilton and Timothy Edward Kane,
Photo: Lara Goetsch
This play had a big cast, and all of them performed above par, really really good work from everybody involved, most of them invoked my sympathies at one point or another, a few exceptions but they were supposed to be obnoxious US politicians and their staff or corrupt military, they succeeded in their aim beautifully.

It was a long play, one intermission in which we were invited to have a look around the set. 

I was intrigued from the start, I have to admit I don't know much about Afganistan in the 80s. I believe this play was very well researched,  at least I had no problem believing everything I saw on stage as being true (or plausible, these are secret services after all, who knows what's true).

The story was impressive, believable and intriguing, the actors made it so.


CIA and MI6: Timothy Edward Kane and Raymond Fox,
Photo: Lara Goetsch





Abdullah Khan: Kareem Bandealy, Photo: Lara Goetsch 


from the officialwebsite:
Timothy Edward Kane, Peter Sipla, Andrew L. Saenz,
Owais Ahmed and Behzad Dabu, Photo: Lara Goetsch
This spy thriller—named one of the Top 10 plays of 2011 by The New York Times — goes deep inside the secret United States intrigue that powered the Soviet-Afghan War of the 1980s. A CIA operative struggles against conditions on the ground and politics in the halls of Washington to stop the Soviet Army's destruction of Afghanistan. As alliances shift and the outcome of the Cold War appears to hang in the balance, he and an Afghan warlord find that the only one they can trust is each other. This bold new play unmasks the actions of men behind one of recent history's greatest events — the repercussions of which still shape our lives.


official review blurbs:

CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. "[A] ferociously smart, thoroughly excoriating 2011 drama by J.T. Rogers - now receiving a TimeLine Theatre production that is altogether as bloody brilliant as the play itself. ... Nick Bowling, a director of spectacular skill (aided and abetted by designer Collette Pollard's inspired warren of steel-framed rooms) has cast the play with actors who consistently make your hair stand up on end. Each is more sensational than the next."
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
2 1/2 STARS. “If there's one main take-away from J.T. Rogers' Blood and Gifts, an epic, dramatic account of the allies' Afghan misadventures during the fateful 1980s, it's the inevitability of unintended consequences. ... Moreover, and here's the other great theme of Blood and Gifts, covert wars in the field are waged by imperfect individuals. ... [an] admirably ambitious production ... Physically speaking, the very capable [director Nick] Bowling has come up with the kind of counterintuitive, Chicago-style staging the piece needed.”
CHICAGO THEATER BEAT
4 STARS. "Every stage minute in this two-act thriller totally justifies the bravura work that super-skilled, incredibly meticulous TimeLine Theatre Company puts into this Chicago premiere. ... It’s hard to do justice to the crisply incisive, sometimes incongruously hilarious, dialogue; to a plot full of “war games” that moves swiftly even as it goes downhill, and to the humanity of a script that explains, without excusing, war crimes wherever they crop up, be they Russian atrocities, Afghan brutality or American mischief-making. ... [a] surefire hit."
THE FOURTH WALSH
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. “We aren’t reading about arms negotiations in a newspaper snippet or history book. We are seeing the people making the deals. We are in the room with decision makers. We start to understand their perspective and their stakes in the game. This hindsight advantage is like watching a poker game over everyone’s shoulder. ... Under the masterful direction of Nick Bowling, this isn’t so much a thriller as it is thrilling.”
CHICAGO ON THE AISLE
5 STARS. “With its perennial menu of plays tied to historical events and culture-changing personalities, TimeLine Theatre is always a good bet for a night of creative stagecraft. Now, with its riveting, razor-sharp production of Blood and Gifts, the company has raised its own bar. ... What Rogers has created in his 2010 play is not a historical account but a historical drama, a well-researched, powerfully personalized fiction, but one that is stunningly credible in its detail, arc and outcome. ... It is an enveloping, absorbing experience.”
TIME OUT CHICAGO
3 STARS. “J.T. Rogers's highly researched 2010 work manages to dramatize the complex tangle of events over a decade in a manner that's illuminating without feeling like a lecture or a History Channel reenactment. ... Nick Bowling'simmersive staging and a strong cast of 14 keep us following the various threads with relative ease."
WINDY CITY TIMES
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. "This is one of TimeLine's largest and most complex shows, and it's terribly important as well. Masterful veteran director Nick Bowling does not disappoint, handling with equal skill the complex physical logistics of the alley staging and the high emotions of the characters. This is gangbusters theater with one of the finest casts currently onstage ... Do see this show."
CENTERSTAGE CHICAGO
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. “J.T. Rogers' brilliantly written, historically accurate drama is a taut examination of the perilous role trust plays in international intrigue. This superbly acted and slickly produced finale to TimeLine's 16th season is a must-see for many reasons. ... The play unfolds like a tightly wound political thriller leaving the audience breathless by the end."
CHICAGO SPLASH
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. “The final scene of the play is breathtaking, moving from touching to terrifying in a matter of moments, in a way that manages to feel both shocking and inevitable all at the same time. ... Though it contains many very funny moments, this story is a difficult one. Yet, it is one that should be required viewing for those who seek to understand how the United States ended up in its long war in Afghanistan.”
CHICAGO READER
RECOMMENDED. "Director Nick Bowling's cast make the four-sided chess match harrowing. ... Timeline Theatre Company's swift, cunningly designed production is always engaging."
AROUND THE TOWN CHICAGO
5 STARS. “Anyone who knows TimeLine Theatre Company, knows that they are a top company in Chicago ... I am sure that this will be another award-winning production for TimeLine ... I suggest you do not put this one off, whether a history buff or just a theater lover, this should be on your “must see” list."
CHICAGOLAND THEATER REVIEWS
3 1/2 STARS. “An audience should be grateful to see a play that is well written and beautifully staged. When that play provides a meaningful educational experience, the audience is thrice blessed. Consider Blood and Gifts at the TimeLine Theatre. ... The production gives the Rogers script a sense of absolute authenticity with some pinpoint casting.”
FROM THE LEDGE
“I am so glad that TimeLine Theatre Company, clearly becoming one of the most essential arts companies in Chicago, has given that play Blood and Gifts an exciting, suspenseful, magnificently acted and directed Chicago premiere.It is the most vital theatrical experience I’ve had this year so far – rich, provocative, intellectually and emotionally fascinating ... The play is great, but the acting in this production propels it to even more greatness. ... It’s a play that is imperative viewing for us as theatergoers interested in our world. ... You’re a fool if you miss Blood and Gifts.”
CHICAGO CRITIC
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. “[TimeLine sure has] a gem in J.T. Rogers’ Blood and Gifts. [It’s a] well-paced and superbly acted drama. ... an actor’s showcase ... Rogers’ political play is part spy thriller and part scathing indictment of American foreign policy. It demonstrates that we have not learned history’s lessons.”
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