The Best Theater came in Small Packages

Richard Christiansen, Chicago Tribune

"Working from Tony Kushner's eloquent English adaptation, director Curt Columbus has staged a surprising and striking new production of "A Dybbuk," one of the classics of Jewish drama. But the true passion of this passionate folk tale is conveyed by the actors. In particular, there is Chris Conry, an actor of laser beam intensity who portrays Chonen, the young student of mystic inclinations, so devoted to the village girl Leah (the fragile, beautiful Tracy Coppola) that, at his death, his soul takes possession of her body. Conry, his face painted chalk white, really does seem to be an obsessive creature in the fervent delivery of his lines.

In the second act, with the aid of Hystopolis' most ingenious (and most beautiful) puppet creation, he truly takes possession of his beloved's body. Columbus' inventive staging, for Red Hen Productions, takes full advantage of the deep, high-ceilinged auditorium of the Chopin Theatre. Scenic and lighting designer Mark Lohman has placed the action in a space formed by angled, overhanging geometric screens; and within and without that playing area, Columbus has marshaled his cast in a vivid, articulate presentation of the drama. The grand, mythic production is topped by its final scene, a stroke of high theatricality that summons up a literally heavenly ending uniting the young lovers for eternity".