Theatre with a side of life
Idle Muse Theatre Company presents a World Premiere adaptation of THE TEMPEST. This Shakespearean tale is truly a tempest. A squall brings down the King’s ship. The survivors become separated on an enchanted island. Each person faces turmoil from their own desires and each other. Every conflict is exacerbated by mischievous spirits. And the source for ...
Idle Muse Theatre returns to its origin story with the re-crafted and remounted WHAT THE WEIRD SISTERS SAW. Fifteen years ago Artistic Director Evan Jackson and Tristan Brandon adapted Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Jackson and Brandon’s tale tells the legendary tragedy from the perspective of the three witches. They create the backstory of the prophecy that sets Macbeth ...
Idle Muse Theatre Company presents the World Premiere of THE LAST QUEEN OF CAMELOT. From the title, I imagined Queen Guinevere (played by Caty Gordon-Hall) was finally going to have her say. The legendary Camelot implosion would be told from her point of view. Although the show has snippets of her own self revelations, the Queen’s ...
Idle Muse Theatre presents the World Premiere of THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE. Playwright Michael Dalberg reimagines and expands on the familiar story of a mild-mannered doctor transforming into a raging monster. Dalberg’s tale has all the same characters. Yet, in this version, Dr. Jekyll (played by an impressive Brandi Jiminez Lee) ...
Idle Muse Theatre Company presents the world premiere production of Upon This Shore: A Tale of Pericles and the Daughters of Tyre. Director and Adaptor Evan Jackson ambitiously orchestrates one of Shakespeare’s less recognized works. At its core, the tale is about a prince separated from his wife and child. As with any Shakes’ saga, the ...
Idle Muse Theatre presents IN THE NEXT ROOM (OR THE VIBRATOR PLAY). Playwright Sarah Ruhl explores the sexual repression of 19th century women. She sets her story in the home of Dr. and Mrs. Givings. While the Mrs. (Kristen Alesia)struggles with postpartum depression, her hubby (Joel Thompson) is treating women for hysteria in his operating theatre ...
Idle Muse Theatre Company presents EQUIVOCATION. Playwright Bill Cain blurs the lines between fact and fiction, onstage and offstage, history and real time in this Shakespearean mash-up. The Bard has been royally commissioned to write a play about the powder keg assassination attempt on the King. The problem is this isn’t about history. The treasonous ...
Idle Muse Theatre presents BEST FOR WINTER. Director Evan Jackson impressively adapts works by William Shakespeare, including The Winter’s Tale, into one epic tale. His storytelling is bursting with signature Shake; a mad king, a shipwreck, mistaken identities, star-crossed lovers. Jackson engages with an almost overwhelming 16 characters. Over time, his multiple storylines are weaved together in a ...
Idle Muse Theatre presents the Chicago premiere of THE SCULLERY MAID. The war is over. The plague is regressing. King Edward III (played by Dave Skvarla) has returned from the battlefield to face domestic disturbances in his castle. Playwright Joseph Zettlelmaier drops us into 1300s England where the kitchen staff is baking a cake for the ...