Steadstyle Chicago
	June 2009 Theatre Review by Joe Stead
	Visiting Mr. Green Great theatre can happen anywhere.  The first play I directed took place in a church basement rec room, the second in the backroom of a diner and bar.  And throughout the Chicagoland area are tiny miracles taking place in every conceivable venue.  The Village Theatre Guild performs in what was once a one-room schoolhouse in the pleasant suburb of Glen Ellyn, a short hop skip and a jump from Chicago and the North Shore.  By the time this review appears online, the season closer "Visiting Mr. Green" will be closing or closed, so I can only speak of the exemplary performance of this heart-touching work as hopefully an indicator of good things to come in the future. Audiences at Northlight Theatre will remember the terrific pairing of Mike Nussbaum and Guy Adkins several years back in Jeff Baron's breakthrough first play.  VTG's duo of Roger Westman and Chris Richardson is every bit as honest and affecting.  The premise is simple and straightforward, but these extraordinary actors are able to mine considerable humor and pathos from this bittersweet two-hander.  And in the intimacy of this quaint and appealing little theatre, they are able to communicate the unusual bond that develops between two extreme opposites sincerely and genuinely.  If you haven't come to care at least a little for both men by the end of the two hours and twenty minutes, then there is something seriously wrong with you. We meet Ross Gardner, a 29-year-old who has been assigned to community service by visiting an 86-year-old recluse known only as Mr. Green.  Ross was behind the wheel of the car that came close to hitting the elderly man, who had walked out into traffic and fell over.  The craggy senior citizen is none too pleased with the sudden interference of strangers in his life.  We discover that his beloved wife Yetta recently passed away after 59 years of loving marriage, during which Mr. Green claims they never argued once.  We see the huge void that has been left in his life and almost feel like we know Yetta, even though she never appears in the play. Ross has been ordered by a judge and social worker to perform some light chores for Mr. Green, straightening up his disheveled apartment and ensuring that the empty fridge and kitchen cabinets are stocked with food.  Not so easy as the Jewish elder demands to keep Kosher.  There are four different sets of table wear for specific types of meals (meat, dairy, Shabbat and Passover).  Although Ross himself was raised Jewish, he doesn't know much about his family ancestry and doesn't actively practice the religion.  Through Mr. Green, he learns about the struggle of the Russian Jewish immigrants to escape persecution. Ross in turn encourages Mr. Green to find something worthwhile to keep living, as he learned in Hebrew school that Jews are not allowed to commit suicide.  Like Mr. Green, Ross lives alone and has a strained relationship with his parents.  Both men have secrets that come out through the play that question the importance of family, love and relationships and caring for other human beings.  Being alone, as Mr. Green suggests, can be a sad thing, yet life has a strange way of bringing people together in unanticipated ways. "Visiting Mr. Green" is a beautiful play and it has been sensitively directed by Sue Keenan and produced by Lisa Savegnago.  The attention to detail on the cluttered apartment set really makes one feel as if this place has been lived in for decades.  The bond that slowly develops between the two conflicting characters is extraordinarily well handled by Roger Westman and Chris Richardson.  Keenan allows this to unfold in a leisurely but meaningful way.  Even if I can't help fill their seats for this play, I can encourage future audiences to seek out this fine little company.  Their upcoming season includes Stephen Sondheim's musical "Company" this fall, followed by "Rabbit Hole," "Later Life" and "Over the River and Through the Woods" in 2010.  Visit www.villagetheatreguild.org for more information.    About Joe Stead Joe Stead has enjoyed a lifelong passion for the theatre, which has involved acting, directing, producing, designing and reviewing for the past twenty-five years.  He served as founder, producer and Artistic Director of Curtain Up Productions in Baltimore, Maryland and Four Star Players in Tampa, Florida.  Favorite productions have included "Life With Father," "Deathtrap," "The Odd Couple," "The Miracle Worker," "Brighton Beach Memoirs," "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown" and "Godspell".  He has also performed leading roles in "Fiddler on the Roof," "Pippin," "The Phantom of the Opera," "The Front Page," and most recently as Hucklebee in "The Fantasticks" for Waukegan Community Players.  Joe holds a degree in Commercial Art from Tampa Technical Institute.  As a critic, he has reviewed everything from Broadway to community theatre and major regional theatres throughout the United States including the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey, Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut, and the Asolo Theatre in Sarasota, Florida.  Since 1998, he has been a proud resident of Chicago, the greatest theatre city in America.  He served for two years as Theatre Editor for College News and Central Newspapers.  He created the website Steadstyle Chicago in 2000 to showcase the city's outstanding and diverse theatre scene.  Joe was proud to serve alongside a distinguished panel of theatre professionals as a judge for two seasons of Speaking Ring Theatre's "Vitality" Festival of original short plays.  His most fulfilling role, in addition to reviewer and all-around theatre fanatic, was as director of the 2007 production of Peter Shaffer's "Equus" at Actors Workshop (now Redtwist) Theatre, which was nominated for five Joseph Jefferson Award Citations and won for Best Actor (Peter Oyloe).