| Work of art. And about as precise a depiction of the joys and sorrows of youth you’re likely to find in contemporary theatre. That this is achieved through music and motion alone augments the achievement. I don’t know where ILLINOISE, an American romance of time and place, can go from here, but it should go somewhere. If you’re young or you’ve held your youth near enough to still hear its heartbeat, you’ll likely respond to this viscerally. Peck and Stevens cast a spell that’s nearly unbroken for 90 minutes. Every component part, creative and performing, is elegantly devised and often sublime. ILLINOISE demonstrates that none of us is ever above—or much beyond really—our impetuous youth. It sings the body electric so fervently and so tenderly that somewhere Whitman, the original American bard, must be dancing too. |
