Among the uncountable curiosities that cycle and recycle through social media is a page of historic black-and-white photographs somebody colorized, apparently to remind us that people like Charles Darwin and Mark Twain didn’t live their lives in monochrome—that they once had flesh-toned skin and stylishly dyed clothes, just like us. The point is obvious, but the effect is still remarkable. People we’re used to seeing as chronologically remote are suddenly comprehensible as warm-blooded souls. A little of their grandness is lost, maybe, but a lot of their humanity is restored.
Crucially, the same is true of every other performance here. As the men in Hedda’s life, Sean Fortunato, Scott Parkinson, and Mark Montgomery manipulate the conventional Ibsenian schematics to generate all kinds of rich, wholly believable shadings. The show is sharp and ambiguous, entertaining and so awfully painful. Vivid.
Through 3/16: Tue-Wed 7:30 PM, Thu-Fri 8 PM, Sat 4 and 8 PM, Sun 2 and 6 PM Writers Theatre 325 Tudor Court, Glencoe 847-242-6000writerstheatre.org $35-$70
