The darkly humorous play Obliteration opens with a 10-minute monologue based mostly on an uncomfortable query: How did you find yourself in a wheelchair?
Delivered by Chicago actor Michael Patrick Thornton, the response comes proper from private expertise: Thornton has used a wheelchair since an sickness when he was 24.
“It’s one thing that Mike has talked to me about … that folks will usually ask him,” says playwright and showrunner Andrew Hinderaker. “And he’s so aggravated by the query that he simply makes stuff up. He makes up loopy tales.”
Obliteration opens this week in Chicago after a sold-out take a look at run at a brand new play competition final summer time in Steppenwolf’s cabaret-style 1700 Theater. The scrappy, improvisational vibe will nonetheless drive the manufacturing at The Revival, a 100-seat venue within the South Loop.
Staged by the unique solid and director, Obliteration fuses stand-up comedy with theater, drawing from the at-times darkish thoughts of its Madison, Wis.-based creator. Hinderaker has had a profitable profession as a author in Hollywood, regardless of his house base in Wisconsin, with writing credit that embrace Showtime’s Penny Dreadful, a supernatural horror sequence starring Josh Hartnett; Showtime’s Let the Proper One In, a few teen who turns right into a vampire; and the upcoming Netflix sequence Black Rabbit, a nightlife drama which reunites Ozark co-stars Jason Bateman and Laura Linney and in addition stars Jude Legislation.
Hinderaker, an ensemble member at Chicago’s Present Theatre, began his profession penning performs domestically. He nonetheless has a ardour for theater, regardless of his success with scripted tv sequence.
“I’ve been so fortunate to get to work in TV and movie,” he mentioned. “However the theater I got here up in in Chicago is a very particular model of storefront theater, the place you get to see among the finest actors on the earth in an area that’s generally 20 or 30 seats — which is simply an intimacy that you simply don’t get to have [in TV].”
Obliteration walks a high-quality line between two performers chasing laughs and the rawness of the comedians — portrayed by Thornton and Present ensemble member Cyd Blakewell — offstage, baring their souls. It has moments which can be humorous, however the play can also be visceral.
“When he first pitched the thought of us being stand-ups, I used to be like, ‘I actually don’t know why you need me to do that,’ ” mentioned Blakewell. “Being humorous onstage is often not my bread and butter.”
Blakewell had by no means tried stand-up comedy, however early within the means of scripting, Hinderaker wrote a 10-minute set that she carried out through the Present Theatre’s annual 10-minute play competition.
“That was my very first stand-up expertise,” she mentioned. “I simply keep in mind getting up there, the lights arising, perhaps my first line, after which I don’t keep in mind the rest. Then, I walked offstage and I used to be simply drenched in sweat. And that’s not often how I roll onstage.”
However she powered by means of. Hinderaker mentioned they obtained 10 observe runs in entrance of a reside viewers through the competition. He would combine it up and have Blakewell attempt the set utilizing totally different feelings. He mentioned she constructed a pure relationship with audiences over the performances.
“It was terrifying,” Blakewell recollects of the expertise, chuckling.
Thornton, who had carried out improv in Chicago, had a unique relationship with comedy. He carried out a comedic pre-show introductory speech earlier than performances of Macbeth throughout his Broadway debut in 2022.
“Everyone obtained COVID,” Thornton recalled of the manufacturing that starred Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga. So many solid members obtained sick that at one level, director Sam Gold needed to carry out Thornton’s position. Gold had written a seven-minute pre-show opener to heat up the viewers and introduce the Shakespearean characters. Whereas Gold was taking over Thornton’s position, he requested Thornton to provide the opening speech.
“I used to be so dumb and so awe-stricken by my Broadway debut that I feel solely midway by means of, I used to be like, ‘Oh man, I’m doing stand-up comedy on Broadway,’ ” Thornton mentioned.
He carried out the opening set eight occasions every week to shut to 1,000 individuals. About half of it was written, and the opposite half he improvised night time to nighttime.
For Hinderaker, writing stand-up units was not simple. The Wisconsin native frequents Comedy on State, Madison’s most distinguished comedy membership. There, he fielded recommendation from stand-up vets like Neal Brennan (co-creator of Chappelle’s Present on Comedy Central), Sarah Silverman and Beth Stelling. Moreover providing recommendation and notes, Silverman additionally contributed phrases — she voices the pre-show bulletins aired within the theater earlier than performances.
Hinderaker says theater nonetheless permits him to create an expertise that tv — and streaming — doesn’t. “In theater, you’re not enjoying a numbers sport,” he mentioned, recalling a Netflix present he wrote that was canceled after its first season. “The factor you are able to do in theater is create an expertise that the individuals watching the Netflix present can not have. I’m enthusiastic about that — even when it means the present is completed as soon as, twice or 3 times for 1,000 individuals, as an alternative of being carried out 40 occasions for 20,000 individuals. That’s high-quality if we’re creating one thing miraculous or transcendent.”
Mike Davis is a theater reporter who covers phases throughout Chicago.
