The Incredible Hank In the fictional city of Sandicago, superheroes and supervillains are running rampant. All except Hank, who would rather be the world’s greatest file clerk than even admit to possessing any special powers, much less use them to fight bad guys. But when his loudmouth superhero-wannabe boss, Carl, shoots the city’s greatest supervillain, Dr. Manticle, Hank is forced to step in and save the day. What makes this hour-long comedy from New Millennium Theatre Company work is that it’s sincere without being cloying and self-referential without being smug. The handmade, ultra-low-budget costumes and the use of puppets and fake newscasts only add to the fun, making the underlying commentary on our fame-obsessed society go down that much easier. Alex B. Reynolds wrote and directed. —Dmitry Samarov
26 Pride Arts Center christens its late-night programming with this compilation of sketches and supershort plays written by staples of Chicago’s comedy and theater scenes. In the vein of the One Minute Play Festival or the Neo-Futurists’ The Infinite Wrench, ten playwrights and comedians are randomly assigned letters of the alphabet (hence the title) by director Brian Gore, from which they derive inspiration for a one- or two-minute piece presented by a game ensemble of eight. The result is a little more than an hour of poetry, quick gags, and context-free dramatic fragments that tend to land better the more you’re familiar with the names and companies behind them. However slight the pieces, though, at least the fostered sense of community is palpable. —Dan Jakes
