Wonder's Shakespeare: "A Hero on a Budget"

A playwright performs an improvised play in an improvised theater, about a playwright who works in an improvised theater. The circular references follow the millings of Nathan Wonder as a modern-day Shakespeare whose career is circling the drain.

The longer of its two titles is more descriptive: William Shakespeare Lives or William Shakespeare, a 30 year-old playwright who lives in Chicago's Edgewater neighborhood, has just opened his new play, Titus Andronicus, and it was not well-received; a comedy in three acts.

But "Shakespeare" is more like a prop than a character in this one-man show, serving as a gravitational center for a series of rants, reflections and beer-soaked introspections. Theatre insiders can relate to the narrative, and anyone can appreciate its universal message: we are in love with Possibility, and all our self-loathing is just frustration at being unable to rewrite the Past.

Seasoned by scholarship and spiked with vulgarity, William Shakespeare Lives is a saucy comedic monologue that approaches Man's classic internal conflicts armed with PBR, TV reruns, and a sublime desire to connect.

Repeat performances are July 16th at 8PM and July 17th at 3PM at the Elgin Art Showcase. Tickets are available at janusplays.com.