Centerstage - Chicago's Original City Guide

Recommended a "Must See" Show

Visual theater (or, if you want to be snarky, set-based theater) has two gods in Chicago: the baroque, demented Redmoon and the apollonian Building Stage. The latter's gorgeously spare productions have a sleek, industrial-loft sort of beauty that, like modern art, conveys meaning through sheer line. Its new production of "The Master Builder," the Ibsen classic about the downfall of an architect, goes even further down the path of minimalism, using just four actors, who double as adapters and designers. Critics disagree about the success of the experiment: some flip over its sleek intellectualism, while others complain that the lack of a director leaves Ibsen's taut tragedy directionless. Either way, it still looks good.