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Herman Melville's Classic Bartleby the Scrivener Comes to the Stage

Greenhouse Theater Center, Formerly Victory Gardens Greenhouse Theater (2257 N. Lincoln Avenue Chicago, IL 60614)
Bartleby-042612
Full Price:
$18.00
Our Price:
$9.00*
4.3 by 8 members
What happens when your best worker becomes your worst nightmare? That's the simple yet ultimately ingenious premise behind Herman Melville's celebrated novella, Bartleby the Scrivener, which takes on new life in this original stage adaptation from Organic Theater Company. With five simple words, "I would prefer not to," the mysterious Bartleby wreaks havoc in an orderly New York law office, forcing his weak-willed boss into increasingly futile attempts to make him get back to work -- or get rid of him altogether. Adapted for the stage by Organic Theater's Producing Artistic Director, Alexander Gelman, Bartleby the Scrivener is absurdist theater at its funniest and most poignant.

* Additional fees apply.

All offers for Bartleby the Scrivener have expired.

The last date listed for Bartleby the Scrivener was Sunday June 24, 2012 / 3:00pm.

Currently at Greenhouse Theater Center:

Tea-temp

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Full Price:
$30.00
Our Price:
$9.00 - $15.00

One day in the 1920s, two literary legends -- Edith Wharton and F. Scott Fitzgerald -- met for tea, and then never spoke again. Tea With Edie and Fitz imagines that monumental meeting, jumping backward and forward in time to examine the lives of the two fascinating writers. What happened during their meeting to cause them to never speak again? Spanning the entire globe, from glittering expatriate Paris to roaring post-WWI Manhattan, the show explores each author's life. Fitzgerald shared his life with his beautiful and troubled Southern wife, Zelda, while Wharton shared hers with the ghost of her mentor and longtime companion Henry James. A look at the two writers' lives leads to questions of gender, sanity, time, the purpose of art, and the nature of love and loss. Learn More

Formerly Victory Gardens Greenhouse Theater,
2257 N. Lincoln Avenue
Chicago, IL 60614
773-404-7336
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Goldstar Member Tips

6 Goldstar Member Reviews

Missing_member_pic_grid_2_1 Goldstar Member
3.0

Good adaptation of the book that was generally well paced and well performed. The externalization of the manager's psyche as two slap-stick characters in the absurdest fashion should be re-thought and toned down a bit to match the quiet chaos of Bartleby.

Written on Jun 25 2012
Missing_member_pic_grid_2_1 rkadanoff
4.0

Lovely energetic innovative telling of a story
I did niot find the beginning or end made sense but the main part was great

Written on Jun 25 2012
Missing_member_pic_grid_2_1 Scott S.
5.0

marvelous and totally entertaining. Just an awesome job, kudos to the cast!

Written on Jun 25 2012
Missing_member_pic_grid_2_1 Bob Armstrong
4.0

I'm a bit divided: There's an intesting reading of a Herman Melville story and there's a routine of actors' running around doing visual and physical humor. It's at least two rings of a three-ring circus -- but which ring am I supposed to watch?

A few times the physical bits start to fight the play's own reality: the story is about a business that copies documents, so there are scenes of stamping paper forms in an assembly-line manner, but then an actor will spontaneously take an unexamined paper, crumple and throw it away. Another actor performs similarly after making a paper airplane out of the document. This is what they do for a living -- why would they disrespect the customer's product this way?

Use of Anton Karas' score from a well-known movie, throughout the play, makes audience think of that movie and not of this play. Cardinal sin in sound design.

It's an attractive production, it moves well and the actors make all the characters a likeable ensemble. I think most people will like it.

There's a block of wood dead-center on one of the landings going up the aisles. I remember it from last time I was in this house. Only a question of time before someone falls headfirst down steps.

Written on Jun 16 2012
All 6 Reviews

More Information About Bartleby the Scrivener

Website

http://greenhousetheater.org/

Quotes & Highlights

  • Bartleby the Scrivener is Jeff Awards Recommended.
  • "Organic Theater plays up Melville's humor, often to the point of slapstick, but never loses the other deep threads running through the tale." --Chicago Reader