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“ . . . pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral. . . .” —Polonius, Hamlet, act II, scene 2 Especially pop genres. His latest, The Light Fantastic—getting its world premiere now in a witty production directed by Gus Menary for Jackalope Theatre—takes him into horror, satanic division. Menary and his large staff of designers pick up nicely on that energy. More often than not this staging comes across as the most sophisticated piece of backyard theater you’re ever likely to see, complete with scary-cool effects and faux-Hollywood titles achieved on a budget....

There is a great deal to like about Haven’s Kiss by Guillermo Calderón, directed by Monty Cole, about two Syrian couples who meet to watch a popular soap opera but whose lives become a soap opera, overly dramatic and comical. Youssif (Salar Ardebili) loves Hadeel (Arti Ishak), but she’s with Ahmed (Cole), who may or may not love Bana (Cassidy Slaughter-Mason). It’s a love rhombus. The acting is delightful, the first act very funny and engrossing, and the physicality both sensual and silly....

Joe Camarillo, an intuitive and potent drummer who played with dozens of Chicago bands for more than 30 years, died Sunday following a stroke. He was 52. In 1993 he met John San Juan, a musician and kindred soul who was just starting to perform under the name Hushdrops. Camarillo joined the group that same year, a development San Juan likens to “when the Beatles got Ringo—everything was a lot better, instantly....

Street View is a fashion series in which Isa Giallorenzo spotlights some of the coolest styles seen in Chicago. Every day for the past two years, Abigail Glaum-Lathbury has worn one of six versions of the same jumpsuit. A professor of fashion design at the School of the Art Institute, Glaum-Lathbury created the outfit with Los Angeles-based visual artist Maura Brewer to “explore the possibility of a universal garment that could be worn in any situation,” she says....

It has been a bad month for apologies from MAGA, as no one is as bad at apologies as MAGA. Last week, I analyzed the so-called apology of Congresswoman Mary Miller, a newly elected Republican from the 15th district in downstate Illinois. She got into hot water for uttering the three words that even a MAGA person should know enough not to say . . . As a lefty with Libertarian impulses, I support Catanzara’s right to hold that sign....

Finding a good selection of clothes that not only fit but tell a style story is a challenge for most plus-size people. While mass-market retailers like Target and Macy’s have a much better selection in extended sizes than they did just 20 years ago, some of us want to be able to find unique pieces and not just settle for whatever fits from the clearance rack. And finding vintage clothing in sizes larger than 14 or XL can seem completely impossible, as though each and every plus-size item that was originally sold pre-1995 was zapped from the earth....

When New Orleans band Tank & the Bangas invited their friends and family to help them cover Hal David and Burt Bacharach’s pop classic “What the World Needs Now Is Love” in January, they embraced the song’s earnest call for kindness, sprinkled in spoken word urging people to come together in peace, and wrapped up with an a cappella solo from Harmony Ball (the young niece of lead singer Tarriona “Tank” Ball), whose childlike sincerity could stir up hope in the bleakest pessimist....

Developed by the Minneapolis-based creative duo of Olive Bieringa and Otto Ramstad, Closer is like nothing so much as an interesting but sometimes awkward first date. The idea is this: an audience and dancer come together for a one-on-one performance in a public setting—a nearby park, a municipal building, an abandoned industrial plant. You could just as easily wind up watching someone tumble across a grassy knoll as dangle from the wrought-iron beams of an old factory building....

Corinne J. Kawecki’s 90-minute one act, receiving its Chicago premiere at Pride Films and Plays, concerns Julia, a woman in her 50s whose life seems to be unraveling. She hates her job working as an escort. Her current girlfriend is unfaithful. Her ex, with whom she’s still living, is throwing her out. To top it off, she is being bedeviled by voices that mock and tease her. At first, we empathize with Julia, but after a while it’s hard not to get a little frustrated with a directionless character who careens from one minor disaster of her own making to another....

The happy paradox of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival is that while it was instituted to celebrate the jazz legacy of Chicago’s south side, its programming puts it on par with great jazz festivals around the globe. It commissions new projects from rising local musicians. This year one of those works is Requiem for Jazz by Angel Bat Dawid, a 12-part multimedia jazz funeral that responds to the 1959 film The Cry of Jazz by Chicago-born filmmaker Edward Bland and draws on the tradition of hush harbors (secret religious services where slaves practiced their own rituals); another is The Story of 400 Years, a sonic narrative of African American history by Isaiah Collier & the Chosen Few....

Trying to convince the public that two white men who’ve sold millions of records and run their own music festival are at the bottom of the totem pole is a challenge, but Steve Miller—author of Detroit Rock City and the new Juggalo—is up for it. ICP have a few things going for them—not least that they’re both straight white men, which confers all sorts of advantages—but in fairness, they’ve had to overcome some big hurdles....

Viggo Mortensen in Jauja Lisandro Alonso’s Jauja—which plays again at the Siskel Center tonight and tomorrow—should be seen on a big screen or not at all. Crucial scenes of this art house spectacle transpire in extreme long-shot, the actors presented as mere dots on the Patagonian Desert landscapes where the action unfolds. On a TV or computer screen, you can hardly make out the human figures during such moments, which might lead you to believe that nothing’s happening in the shots....

The Cousin From Nowhere Chicago Folks Operetta, which specializes in producing neglected works from the post-World War I “Silver Age” of European operetta, delivers a winning revival of German composer Eduard Künneke’s 1921 Berlin hit. Translated by Gerald Frantzen and Hersh Glagov from the original text by Fritz Oliven (aka “Rideamus”) and Herman Haller, the libretto is whimsical fluff: 18-year-old heiress Julia (Heather Youngquist) falls in love with a wandering stranger (Nicholas Pulikowski), who she thinks is her long-absent childhood sweetheart, upsetting the scheme of her greedy uncle and aunt (James Judd and Rose Guccione) to arrange a marriage for her so they can control her fortune....

Every Monday night, the Promontory in Hyde Park transforms part of its upstairs venue to host the Corner—a young performance series that, like its namesake, arises from an intersection. Curators Sam Brown and Sasha Tycko use the space inventively, curtaining off the main stage and instead using a small platform in the corner, angled toward the square bar in the middle of the room. Since taking over the series in April 2016, they’ve nurtured a creative community whose identity has shifted and expanded constantly....

With this weekend’s acquittal of Donald Trump by the U.S. Senate, the time has come for all fair-minded Americans to consider what to do about the Republican Party. It’s hard to argue with Republicans because they have no fixed principles—they’ll say whatever they have to say whenever they have to say it, even if it contradicts what they said the day before. They say they’re dedicated to law and order, and Blue Lives Matter....

Few spoken-word artists working the posthip-hop landscape can match the intensity, precision, and metaphoric power of Philadelphia’s Moor Mother (aka Camae Ayewa); I’ve seen her twice this year, and both times she had total control of the audience by the end of the set. She’s involved with several collaborative projects, and one of the most exciting, Irreversible Entanglements, recently dropped its self-titled debut album, a joint release of Chicago’s International Anthem and New Jersey’s Don Giovanni....

It’s kind of amazing that the Guy in Your MFA twitter feed did not exist before last fall. I mean, we live in a world where thousands of young men, many sporting beards and thick-rimmed glasses and who aspire to be the next David Foster Wallace, spend years of their lives hunched over their laptops beside full ashtrays and empty bottles of cheap whiskey just so they can hold court in seminar rooms and make pronouncements like this:...

High One of the best bands to work their way out of the Australian underground, Royal Headache, will be releasing a new LP in August, their first since their 2011 self-titled debut. The band have been relatively quiet over the past couple of years, and some interviews with Royal Headache members even hinted that they’d broken up. But yesterday the band unleashed “High,” the title track from their upcoming record, and it’s today’s 12 O’Clock Track....

Choreographer Mark Morris doesn’t see cultural boundaries when he’s creating art. In a social landscape where appropriation is a hot-button issue, he refuses to block himself off from other cultures. “That’s not how the art works, and certainly not how I work as a choreographer,” says Morris. “I’m going from the text, the music, the rhythms. I make it afresh based on a certain amount of knowledge and experience.” Morris starts with the music, and strives to fully understand the histories and traditions behind whatever piece he’s interpreting....

After almost two intense months of sheltering in place, it seems like the country’s slowly getting back to normal—at least when it comes to political power plays. But I would say that both acts come straight from the Book of Rahm—chapter one, verse one—where our former mayor advises to never allow a good crisis to go to waste. Actually, I’m the only person who calls it that—just my way of tipping my hat to Mr....