“Southern Gothic” is still on-stage at the Windy City Playhouse, 3014 W. Irving Park Rd., Chicago, and it is INCREDIBLE!! Set in a 40th birthday party, in Ashford, Georgia, in 1961, it is filled with friendship, personal history, tensions, arguments, juicy gossip, local politics, and more than a bit of unbridled passion. The cast seems to have been perfectly chosen for their roles, the acting is impeccable, and the staging impressive.

This is immersive theater – the small audience (limited to about 30 per show) is actually inside the house. The party scenes happen all at once, with the obvious effect of being in a real party. You can’t catch every conversation, but the lines of sight, and flow of the actors and conversation is such that you understand everything that’s going on. Moving from room to room, following one character or another, one thread of conversation or a different one, is all part of the immersive experience.

This is real drama, my friends, filled with folks in the midst of several entangled crises, unhappy marriages, unresolved emotions, physical abuse, political corruption that threatens the entire fabric of the group, and a number of questions arise about infidelity, honesty, happiness and obligation, while this group of friends examines their lives in ways they have been pushing aside for too many years.

I really want to spoil it for you. It’s with extreme restraint that I don’t blather on with the exquisite details, intricate story lines, particular scenes that are so powerfully moving or gently touching. You get the idea. We were mightily impressed with this little, under recognized theater in the North Center neighborhood.

GO SEE THIS PLAY.

Hurry up; the show has been extended through Memorial Day, but tickets sell out early.

Frank Brichetto