How do you solve a problem like Melissa Lorraine? I thought she was something special the first time I saw her onstage, just under five years ago, in the little upstairs space at the Royal George Theatre. She was performing Juliet, an evening-length monologue by Romanian writer András Visky. Based on his mother’s sufferings under communist rule, Juliet was harrowing. And Lorraine was vivid. By the time I saw her in another Visky work, Porn—also about Romanian despotism—I was ready to declare that “I’d sit through anything she chose to perform.”
A 2012 “summer dialogue” by that formidable Austrian Peter Handke, Aranjuez is as heavy in its way as any of the company’s previous efforts—and very, very European. It carries the weight extremely well, though, under the direction of Zeljko Djukic, best known locally as the founder of TUTA Theatre Chicago.
Similarly, Kevin V. Smith’s Man and Lorraine’s Woman have a history from the first moment we see them. Smith builds an interesting, idiosyncratic sexual identity from—well, I don’t know quite how he does it, but it’s clear without an explicit word being said. And Lorraine is finally allowed to be Lorraine. Ranging through the space, playful, steely, self-absorbed, unencumbered, she shines. v
Through 7/19: Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 2 PM Theatre Y 2649 N. Franciscotheatre-y.com $20, $15 students and seniors
