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"Highly recommended.."
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review by Ed Vincent

"Someone Who'll Watch Over Me", begins with humidity and sweaty darkness where men are chained to a wall mercilessly.  A morbid reminder of the years of anguish suffered by tormented victims in Beirut of decades ago, brought on by Iran sponsored terrorism.  

To call it a dark play would not only describe the basement set in a region of Beirut decades ago, but also written in a manner that should have a warning about not attending if you are on lithium or suffering from depression.  That said, I would note that this play is one of the strongest dramas of survival in the bleakest of times, times which still persist today.

In the chaotic life of captivity, calls for health, despair, and hope bounce off the walls and souls of the men in hell, and reflections of their torment paint a canvass of needed hope.  The acting is beautiful, the pain becomes real and anguish calls for charity.
 
Some dream of escape or remembrances of the past, but for the most part overwhelming anxiety without respite.  The Irishman Edward declares, " save us from those who believe they're right."  In topics of right and wrong where death or other forms of injustice are the price, the world must weep.
 
This play is a powerful wrenching drama, it should be seen by all those who love live theater.  It should also be seen by anyone in an acting class or thoughts of theater study, the play and performances are that good.

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OAK PARK, IL -- Continuing their close collaboration and working their special magic with another superb example of contemporary Irish dramatic literature, Belinda Bremner will again direct Jack Hickey and Kevin Theis in Oak Park Festival Theatre's production of Irish playwright Frank McGuinness' haunting story of survival, Someone Who'll Watch Over Me.

The inaugural production of Festival Theatre's 39th season reunites a trio whose previous work on Brian Friel's masterpiece Faith Healer captivated critics and audience members alike, causing many of the latter to return to the production for a second and sometimes a third look.

Three male prisoners, one Irish, one British, and one American, must forsake their outward differences and unite in order to survive. In a foreign country, stripped of occupation and possessions, cut off from the world, apparently imprisoned for who they are, this play redefines identity through the lens of deprivation and dependence.



Previewing October 4 and 5, Someone Who'll Watch Over Me opens on Saturday, October 6 at the Madison Street Studio Theatre, 1010 Madison Street, Oak Park. Running through Sunday, November 11, performances are Thursdays - Saturdays at 8:00 p.m., with new 3:00 p.m. Sunday matinees.

"From the moment I read this play twenty years ago I was besotted, enthralled, you could say held captive by it," director Belinda Bremner says about Someone Who'll Watch Over Me. "I had admired Frank McGuinness' genius in earlier works. There is something about those Donegal playwrights living between two worlds, never at home, never quite fully away and that bleak and beautiful landscape that makes for a life teetering on the balance between heartbreak and hilarity - no wonder both McGuinness and Brian Friel give us such extraordinary treatments of Chekhov."

"This play speaks to a question I have often returned to," continues Bremner, who just staged Festival Theatre's critically acclaimed summer hit Richard III. "What do we have in ourselves when everything else by which we defined and presented ourselves is stripped away? What do we discover about our preconceptions of ourselves? And, perhaps more important, how do we deal with our preconceptions of others and theirs about us?"

This production marks Belinda Bremner's fourth directorial assignment for Festival Theatre, having also been at the helm of such outstanding productions as Brian Friel's Dancing at Lughnasa, John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, and this past summer's runaway hit Richard III by William Shakespeare. In addition, she is the creator and director of Mrs. Coney and Midwinter's Tales, both of which have been presented as part of Festival Theatre's annual holiday co-benefits with the Oak Park-River Forest Walk-In Ministry. This year's co-benefit, a new version of Midwinter's Tales, will take place on Saturday, December 8th at Unity Temple in Oak Park. Onstage, under the direction of Kevin Theis, Bremner's tortured but hilariously funny portrayal of Amanda Wingfield in the Tennessee Williams classic The Glass Menagerie a year ago garnered rave reviews and enthusiastic audience applause. She had previously appeared as The Chorus in Festival Theatre's 2011 production of Henry V, also under Theis' direction.

Jack Hickey, whose touching portrait of the lonely actors' manager Teddy profoundly moved Faith Healer audiences, and whose passionately memorable performance this past summer as Henry Drummond in Festival Theatre's thrilling production of Inherit the Wind spurred equally passionate audience responses to the action, returns to the Madison Street Studio in the role of the English prisoner Michael, a diffident widowed academic. Serving as Festival Theatre's Artistic Director for ten years, Hickey has previously appeared as Cyrano in Cyrano de Bergerac, Falstaff in The History of King Henry the Fourth, Charles Condomine in Blithe Spirit, Howard Bevins in Picnic, Friar Lawrence in Romeo and Juliet and Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Kevin Theis, fresh from having created an indelible portrait of evil incarnate as Richard, Duke of Gloucester in Richard III, one of Festival Theatre's highest grossing productions, will play the cynical, bleakly hilarious Irish journalist Edward in Someone Who'll Watch Over Me. He is also remembered by Festival Theatre audiences for his superb portrayal as Frank, the ill-starred title character in Faith Healer. In addition, Theis has graced the Festival Theatre stage as George in Of Mice and Men and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing. Theis directed the highly acclaimed Festival Theatre productions of The Glass Menagerie and Shakespeare's Henry V. He is the author of the just published Confessions of a Transylvanian, the first and only memoir about life as a cast member in a production of Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Chris Rickett rounds out the cast of Someone Who'll Watch Over Me after appearing this past summer as Brackenbury in Festival Theatre's critically acclaimed and highly successful production of Richard III, as well as serving as the production's fight captain. Prior to Richard III, Chris appeared in Redtwist Theatre's production of The Cripple of Inishmaan. is a member of the Society of American Fight Directors and has choreographed fights for About Face Theatre, Redtwist Theatre, American Blues Theater and Theatre Wit. Chris holds an MFA in Acting from The Theatre School at DePaul University.

Adam Hildner will design the set, Claire Chrzan will be the lighting designer and Kyle Irwin will serve as sound designer.

Someone Who'll Watch Over Me previews on October 4 and 5, and opens on Saturday, October 6, running through November 11 at the Madison Street Studio Theatre, 1010 W. Madison in Oak Park. Performances are Thursday through Saturday at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday at 3:00 p.m.

Ticket prices are $25 for adults, $20 seniors (60 and over) and $15 for students with ID. Tickets also may be purchased by calling the box office at 708-445-4440, by e-mailing Tickets@OakParkFestival.com, or going online to OakParkFestival.com. Group rates are available.

Season subscriptions at $80 ($60 for seniors, 60 and over) to OPFT's third year-round, four-play 2012-2013 season are also available. Opening in March at the Madison Street Studio Theatre will be Edward Albee's provocative but very funny 1975 play Seascape, directed by Columbia College theatre professor and Oak Park resident Stephanie Shaw.

Returning to its traditional outdoor setting in Austin Gardens this summer, Festival Theatre continues to present one outstanding contemporary classic, as well as one of William Shakespeare's best plays. Opening in June will be renowned Chicago director Joanie Schultz's staging of British playwright Peter Shaffers's highly fictionalized but brilliantly rendered interpretation of the infamous Mozart-Salieri rivalry, Amadeus. Finally, one of the best loved of all William Shakespeare's comedies, Twelfth Night, directed by RasakaTheatre Artistic Director Lavina Jadhwani, will bring our exciting 39th season to a rousingly stupendous close.

Oak Park Festival Theatre - Oak Park's only Equity theatre and the Midwest's oldest professional theatre performing the classics outdoors - is currently celebrating its 39th year of theatrical excellence and has embarked on its third year-round season producing outstanding productions of the plays of William Shakespeare and other classical authors, as well as important contemporary plays by some of the world's greatest playwrights.