July
24, 2008
By STEPHANIE FOSNIGHT <mailto:sfosnight@pioneerlocal.com> Contributor
Since many restaurants
now ban cell phones, it has become harder to overhear the juicy details of our fellow diners' lives. Many would say that's
a good thing, as you doesn't always want to hear the intimate revelations some clueless cell phone users broadcast across
a crowded dining room. But for those who can't resist an occasional
bit of voyeurism, there's "repeat w/ Madeline," the clever play by Chicagoan Hurt McDermott that makes it OK
to eavesdrop. First performed in the 1990s, "repeat w/Madeline" was revived in June by the suburban-based Blue Heron
Theatre and is running through the summer.
Intimate stage
The play's gimmick is that it's performed in a restaurant -- in this case Fausto's
Italian Kitchen in Arlington Heights -- and the theatergoers takes the silent role of the other diners filling the cafe. At
an intimate setting like Fausto's, that means the 26 audience members get very up close and personal to the three actors,
and they can eat while watching.
"People are not required
to eat," said director Rob Baker of Arlington Heights. "We try not to have noisy food, like pretzels. At Fausto's
they have lasagna and other very quiet food."
As "Repeat w/Madeline"
begins, Madeline and Irene sit down at a table and Irene begins to tell Madeline about the crazy love letters she's received
from a man called Repete, who saw her on a bus and has been wooing her ever since. As the drama unfolds, the action jumps
around in time as the characters retell the story and move forward with the plot. Large areas of the restaurant are used,
including windows looking out onto the street.
"Some of the action
takes place outside the restaurant so you need to be able to see outside. Part of what's fun is that people who are just
walking by the restaurant have no idea what's going on," said Baker, who teaches English at Barrington High School.
"So people in the restaurant are looking out the windows watching people who are watching the scene."
Such wittiness is part of what draws Baker to this play, which has only been produced four
times before, the last a decade ago. Baker said "repeat w/Madeline" is also one of his favorite light modern plays
because of its mix of slapstick and sophisticated humor and thoughtful character development.
"Each character has a different idea of what love is and you feel very good at the end. It's
like no other play I've seen," Baker said.
Perfect timing
In fact, Baker has wanted Blue Heron Theatre to perform "repeat w/Madeline"
since the company's inception three years ago. The group's past two productions have also been one-act plays with
three characters, but the timing wasn't right to revive McDermott's play until this year.
Part of the task was finding a restaurant willing to host the show, and Fausto's Italian
Kitchen was just right, since the cafe closes at 6:30 p.m., before the performances start. When auditions were announced, he was pleasantly surprised by how
many quality actors turned up, and so far their performances have been packing the houses.
"We're a small group with zero funds," said Baker. "These plays are a lot easier than
something with three acts and tons of costumes."
Still, Baker
said, it's not the small scale of the show that attracts him.
"I've
seen "repeat w/Madeline" 300 times and I never get tired of it," he said. "Every single time I see it
I love it."
