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Regional Reviews: Chicago Chopin in Winter Also see Savannah's review of I'm Gonna Marry You Tobey Maguire, Christine's review of Topdog/Underdog, and Karen's review of Bonnie's Last Flight
Both men wrote for The Chicago Daily News in the 1920s, and many of Hecht's column entries later became squibs in his book. They're often spare and maddening glimpses into the lives of new immigrants, often Polish-Americans who ended up in the newspaper through violence or tragedy, made stranger still by a lasting sense of dislocation. The new play, Chopin in Winter by Stuart Dybek, is much gentler, but draws on that same kind of desperate immigrant's hope. It's a one-man show about a boy and his Polish-American family in Chicago in the 1940s, based on a short story Mr. Dybek wrote in 1984. And now the 75-minute play gets its world premiere under the quiet, hypnotic direction of Dexter Bullard, who also designed the very nice set for this show at the 118 year-old Chopin Theatre. The family on stage ekes out a new life on the South Side while an unmarried mother-to-be (Marcy) plays Chopin upstairs. Her lonely recitals cast a complex spell on young Michael, told through the memories of the grown Michael, played by the warm and engaging Yasen Peyankov. He leads us through it with all the elegance of a New Yorker magazine essay, along with the beautiful piano solos of Jana Pavlovska, coinciding with Polish Heritage Month. Things were changing, slowly, for Americans after World War II. And in that pivot point, Michael does his homework at night in the Pilsen neighborhood, south of the Loop. And his grandfather quizzes him on the brilliant Polish composer, in tandem with the dreamy and brooding music flowing down from upstairs. Their dark Chicago winters are tinged with steam, and loss, and a contrary will to survive. But it's a play without fathers, and Marcy upstairs runs off at one point, compounding the show's lineage of loss. Mr. Peyankov (as the grownup Michael) half-reads from a script, which is harder than you think under too-bright or too-dark stage lighting. And he tells about half the story straight to us, with easy reassurance. The combination of naturalistic reading and acting lends the story a fable-like quality, and a half-dozen simple characters turn iconic in this fresh new memory piece. Good things abruptly come to an end, and good people run away from the forbidding rules of men. Dzia-Dzia, the grandfather, has stories of incredible brushes with death. And survival itself, even in a tenement, becomes its own badge of honor. The boy's mother likewise must go on with her sorrow, and the landlady (Marcy's mother) has her own strange quest in the opening scenes. A personal story about their family, played out very publicly, could have been one of those same strange little newspaper articles by Mr. Hecht or Mr. MacArthur. It may be impossible to get to the bottom of Frédéric Chopin's own genius, heard here in several pieces, including two longer piano solos played by the award-winning Ms. Pavlovska: the Nocturne in C-Minor op. 48, no. 1, which has been called Chopin's most important nocturne; and the Nocturne in D-flat Major, op. 27, no. 2, one of his most popular. Transfixing moments of classical music give way to soft passionate beauty–and the occasional fluttering quality of it seems perfect for the return of autumn. The very nice stage lighting is by Adam Jezl-Sikorski with costumes by Rachel M. Sypniewski. And on the set designed by the director, it's often difficult to tell whether the shadows are pouring down, or the light is streaming up. Chopin in Winter runs through October 18, 2026, at the Chopin Theatre, 1543 West Division Street, Chicago, IL. For tickets and information, please visit www.chopintheatre.com. Cast: Musical Accompanist: Production Staff: * Denotes Member, Actors' Equity Association
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