←Recommendations of Another Jungle

A powerful exploration of exploitation and abuse of power, trauma and the stories that are told. Well done.

This is a remarkable play. Reading the description alone hooked me--and Idaszak more than delivers. This is a play with a structure unlike one I've ever seen. There is so much happening here I'm going to have to sit and process it for awhile. It was both wonderfully entertaining and horribly jarring. Idaszak has so perfectly captured the feeling that so many of us writers feel--we want to say something important, we want to be understood, but everything gets muddled up and comes out wrong. And there are so many terrible things in this play, but it is triumphant.

Saw Cloudgate Theatre's production of Another Jungle in the old Profiles Theatre space in Chicago. Perfect venue for this show. Kristin seamlessly transitions the play from one set on shining a light on the mistreatment of Polish immigrants in early Chicago to one that takes aim at the abuse of women in the theatre. And she made me laugh while doing it. I am still thinking of this play weeks later.

A clever metatheatrical comedy about the staging of a play based on Upton Sinclair's novel. I laughed out loud while reading it. Kristin tackles a lot of important and interesting subjects in this play, like cultural heritage and identity, the scars trauma can leave, and the transformative power of art. And it's a comedy. Did I mention that?