Chicago

IndyFringe: Out With It

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This was part of the 20th Anniversary Indy Fringe Theatre Festival in August 2025. Review originally posted on our Facebook page.

By Wendy Carson

A few months ago, I was complaining to my cohort, John, that we have had a dearth of Clowning shows at the Fringe these past few years and I am delighted to say that this year made up for it greatly. The first one on my list to see was this delightful gem.

Embracing the “Found Objects” technique of puppetry, the show centers on a variety of collapsible fabric boxes and some red ribbon scraps to give us a hilarious trip into the absurd.

The show begins as you enter with our performer sweeping up scraps of red fabric and ribbons and putting them in the box center stage. Once she is done, she throws them into the entryway and puts the box behind the curtains. Then the mayhem begins.

Boxes of varying size keep appearing onstage and she keeps trying to gather them together and move them offstage. Once it looks like she will accomplish this feat, more red ribbon appears from various places to keep her from ever getting anything organized.

While this seems like a simplistic show, the various techniques used as well as some of the props, at one point the ribbon coalesces into a creature with a noticeable face, are wonderful. Plus, the performer is so skilled in her physicality, she makes the most intricate movements seem like nothing at all.

Created and performed by Rough House Puppet Arts Co-Artistic Director, Claire Saxe, with original music by Lia Kohl, and Movement Direction by Chihjou Cheng. Since the group is based in Chicago, it would be worth checking out their schedule and making an easy road trip to see one of their shows.

Being that they were one of the hottest tickets of the first weekend of Fringe, I hope that they may see fit to make an occasional foray back to Indy with some of their other shows.

‘White City Murder’ strikes again

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By John Lyle Belden

One hundred thirty-one years ago, Chicago hosted the World’s Fair. Practically everyone who was anyone at the time was there. Also, a notorious and prolific serial killer, who had his victims coming to him, which he dispatched not only for the thrill but also for cold hard cash.

You might already know about this, especially if you have read Erik Larson’s “The Devil in the White City.” Before that non-fiction bestseller was in print, Ben Asaykwee, then living and performing in Chicago, started work on a musical inspired by the brazen exploits of swindler and murderer H.H. Holmes.

Eight years ago, Asaykwee and collaborator Claire Wilcher premiered “White City Murder” in Indy’s Irvington neighborhood (just blocks where Holmes had briefly resided, killing one of his last victims). Last weekend, the duo opened the latest edition of this fascinating historical extravaganza in the black-box Basile stage at the Phoenix Theatre Cultural Centre.

For such an audacious event as the shining white Fair, with the unbelievably dark deeds occurring just miles away, Asaykwee and Wilcher go big with carnival barker energy befitting a Buffalo Bill show (Bill also makes an appearance – in fact our actors portray dozens of people from simple to celebrity). Once they have grabbed our attention, they keep us fascinated and entertained by the story of tragic fates and horrible deeds, aided by a hidden keyboard and a vocal looper to reflect the inventive atmosphere of the late nineteenth century.

A large paper notepad registers the body count, climbing ever higher. It is unknown how many Holmes killed – he was convicted of just one murder and had been pursued only for insurance fraud – but this is not to celebrate that. Asaykwee gives us a snapshot of a wild time in a dynamic era, presenting those whose lives were touched and ruined as much as the man who doomed them. And for us – twenty-first century consumers of true-crime entertainment in its various forms – he gives us a show that truly kills, complete with catchy tunes and wry gallows humor.

Back when I first saw this, I noted its rough edges (now nicely polished) and wondered if this performance was only suited to Asaykwee and Wilcher’s unique style and talents. I now sense others willing to engage the gusto this show demands could do it just fine, but still, make a date to see the originators.

“White City Murder” runs through Aug. 4 at 705 N. Illinois St. in downtown Indianapolis. Info and tickets at phoenixtheatre.org.

ALT: Damaged souls in Inge’s dark drama

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By John Lyle Belden

The title, “Natural Affection,” despite being part of a spoken line, is ironic.

A lesser-known yet highly regarded drama by William Inge (its brief 1962-63 Broadway run suffered from poor publicity), it is a story of people struggling with life and relationships in upper middle-class Chicago apartments. The overall atmosphere is Tennessee Williams, without the humidity.

In the current American Lives Theatre production, single mother Sue (Carrie Anne Schlatter, or Christine Zavakos on select dates) is expecting a Christmas visit from her troubled teen son Donnie (Zach Hoover), allowed temporary release from the “work farm” to which he had been sentenced for an assault years earlier. Sue’s life had been hard, but she has found success as a buyer for a downtown department store, which irks her live-in boyfriend Bernie (Alex Oberheide), a struggling Cadillac salesman.

Next door are friends, of a sort, Vince (Ronn Johnstone), a mostly-functioning alcoholic with both high income and debts, and his wife Claire (Diana O’Halloran), who married for money and is now unsure what she wants – aside from Bernie, again.

Other roles are filled by Wendy Brown, Tim Leonard, Garrett Rowe (including a scene as Donnie’s fellow parolee), and Haley Glickman (most notably in the play’s climax).

This dark drama with, at best, a grim humor provides hearty material for the actors. The undercurrent of dysfunction soon becomes apparent between Sue and Bernie. Schlatter ably expresses the woman constantly pushing against her own insecurities, never quite sure she’s made it. Despite her workplace success, she still feels the need for a marriage to make her truly happy; which with her going on 40 in the 1960s, brings feelings of desperation. Oberheide, for his part, wears his neediness like the tailored suit he wears to work the car lot, coming across like the smarmy guy who’s about to talk you into all the options. It burns him that his girlfriend makes far more than he does, which he gives as the reason for not marrying her. On top of this, Bernie has an abusive temper, but more bipolar than controlling, bringing Sue along on the ride.

As noted above, the “natural” way you’d assume a Midwest family holiday to go is absent here, especially with the neighbors, as Vince tries to salve insecurities about both his financial worth and his sexuality with a wild swinger lifestyle. Johnstone is excellent at playing someone so perpetually pickled you could almost smell it on him without delving into comic drunk stereotype. We hear moments of lucidity between the slurred lines, a kaleidoscope of shifting emotions, and when he’s truly had one too many, it’s more pathetic than funny. O’Halloran portrays the debutante who never matured beyond high school, in desperate need of affections she can only see as transactional; Claire wants better for herself, without a clue about where to start.

Hoover’s Donnie is a Freudian scholar’s dream, the hurt boy in the body of a dangerous man, never sure how to connect with a mother he has only seen infrequently through his tragic life. His scars are both visible and deep, as we discover a character like a revolver with a single chamber loaded. Tension builds from one trigger moment to the next, to the last.

Directed by ALT artistic director Chris Sanders (one of his passion projects), assisted by Tim Leonard with Marta Hamilton as stage manager, this gripping study of human affections, however you define them, runs through Jan. 21 at the IndyFringe Theatre, 719 E. St. Clair, Indianapolis. Get tickets at indyfringe.org and info at americanlivestheatre.org.

IndyFringe: Fret Knot

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This is part of IndyFringe 2022, Aug. 18-Sept. 4 (individual performance times vary) in downtown Indianapolis. Details and tickets at IndyFringe.org.

By John Lyle Belden

First, I must note that comparisons to the comedy duo Garfunkel and Oates are inevitable. Madeline Wilson and Lizzie Kaneicki do seem to have the same schtick, sharing the stage – Wilson with ukulele, Kaneicki with guitar – and perform hilarious songs about life and relationships, but does that other pair of funny women present their shared love of crochet, and literally get tied to and tangled up in their hobby as the show progresses? Afraid not, so “Fret Knot.”

No copycats here – Wilson (originally from Phoenix, according to Facebook) and Kaneicki (from West Virginia) joined forces in Chicago, and with friends perform comedy with music biweekly as “Hahaha Lalala”,* so they are quite capable of bringing the funny as their own entertaining act.

Taking them on their own terms – funny bits, singly or together, about odd taco runs, upset housecats, and all – includes some poetry and storytelling, engaging a range of both emotion and talent. We get the downside of summer birthdays, the peril of intrusive thoughts, and the comforting power of mathematics.

The yarn metaphor is literally all over the place – don’t get too caught up in it. But it does help give the show a “something different” Fringe-y vibe, and at one point the audience does help increase their entanglement.

Having blown in from the Windy City for one weekend, you can see and enjoy “Fret Knot” 8:45 p.m. today (as we post this) and 1:45 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 3-4, at the cabaret stage of the District Theatre.

For Chicago performances, they are presently at the Bughouse Theater.

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(*Find them on Instagram, Google search has a cacophony of unrelated “ha” and “la”s if you hunt there.)

Reiew: Duo puts on killer show

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By John Lyle Belden

To use the language of its era, “White City Murder,” by and starring Ben Asaykwee and Claire Wilcher, is a marvel and a spectacle, well worthy of your dime – well, many of them; it is 2016, after all.

But in a room of the Irvington Lodge, it’s 1893 in Chicago at the Worlds Fair, the setting for much of this musical drama by Q Artistry in which Asaykwee and Wilcher are more than 30 characters and, thanks to a keyboard and vocal loopers, the musical instruments as well.

The plot is familiar to readers of the bestselling book, “Devil in the White City” by Erik Larson (not cited as a source, but likely an influence on Asaykwee’s writing of the show). An impressive complex of buildings, known as the White City for its monochrome style, hosts the Fair while just a couple of miles away, a man known at the time as H.H. Holmes was running his hotel – popularly known as his “murder castle” for its various rooms designed for killing people and processing and disposing of their bodies. Aside from his psychopathy, Holmes killed for profit, selling skeletons to colleges and cashing in on insurance policies. This show delves into his past, and continues after the Fair closes to portray Holmes’ actions to stay ahead of Pinkerton detectives (investigating insurance fraud, not murder), ending not long after his brief stay in Irvington (just blocks away from where the musical is staged).

The story of the person regarded as America’s first serial killer (and one of the most prolific) is told in a fascinating, eccentric manner with old-time pizzazz, drawing a gasp one moment, nervous laughter the next. In the hands of these two master comic actors, it is a performance not to be missed.

And, if I must stop gushing and be a critic for a moment, that’s the show’s main flaw: It feels like a show only these two pros can do. As a musical that can be picked up, re-staged and performed by others – say, in Chicago or even off-Broadway – “White City Murder” has a lot of rough edges. Fortunately, Asaykwee is such a great showman and Wilcher an improv goddess that any goofs, flubs, lulls or moments of this-isn’t-quite-working are easily smoothed over – likely easily forgotten by most of the audience by the end. The musical interludes could use some work, and reliance on electronics does invite technical glitches. There is clever use of what look like large cardboard cutouts that stops for no reason and could be useful in more parts of the plot. I could nitpick further, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Asaykwee and Wilcher are already making tweaks for the show’s second weekend.

Still, as a sort of “beta test” of a show that’s good enough to perform but not quite perfected, this is an excellent first edition.

Remaining performances are Saturday (March 26), and Thursday through Saturday, March 31 to April 2, at 5515 E. Washington St., Indianapolis. See qartistry.org for tickets.

(Review also posted at The Word)