Oracle Theater

Oracle Theater appears to be listed twice on this website, but I’ll list this review only once.
In short, their play, «Happiness: The Pursuit and Other Tragedies» is simply terrible. After 45 minutes my boyfriend and I walked out as politely as possible, rather than waste more time.
The play barely made any sense, the acting was terrible, and if it was trying to be absurdist, it was certainly absurd, but not in a good way. The only redeeming aspect was the live music, which is why I went to see the play in the first place, but with the characters yelling and squawking over the music, we decided it wasn’t worth staying.
This is the second play I’ve seen here, the first being Iron Mistress. While that play was very well acted, the play wasn’t for me, but I figured I’d give the theater another shot since it’s free. I think I’m going to pass on this place in the future.

I just recently learned of the «Oracle’s Public Access Theatre.»
The philosophy of Public Access Theatre is to request donations instead of charging a set entrance fee or to ask for sponsorship. We enjoyed the performance «Ironmistress» by April De Angelis and the performances by Katherine Keberlein as Martha Dabry and Sarah Goeden as Little Cog.
The theater is a gem to our neighborhood. We were able to relax and enjoy their show.

This review is based on Disturbed 3 (I think), for Halloween 2009.
Wow. My fiancé and I got free tickets for this 15 minute show offline and we pumped to get into the Halloween spirit. There were two platforms in the «preformance room» where we stood. There was a half-​naked man (looking creepy, not attractive) that rolled around, yelled, and screamed. Then others came out with what looked like holey-​knitted red blankets around them. It was the most bizarre thing I’ve ever seen.
As the other reviews said, you’re then lead out to a back alley. I expected someone to jump out and scary us or for something to happen to make sense of what occured inside, but no such thing.
We spent more time getting to the Oracle than we did there and I was utterly disappointed that’s how I spent my Wednesday night.

This is a review based on Disturbed 3 which I saw during the Halloween season. I am big into scary things and love the Halloween season. I have lived in Chicago for 3 years and had heard of Disturbed since the beginning and finally heard so much «hype» about it I figured I had to go check it out. To preface I want my $ 9 back for the 15 minute show. When the show was «over» and they were showing us into another room I thought that was like the intro. No, it was over. This is something that you could send grad school kids at and they would probably laugh at it. I even tried to get scared, like really tried and could not do it. It was just the story of some crazy scientist who makes part animal part human creations that go crazy. While you watch this «madness» you stand all crammed into a watching area and then exit into an alley left with confusion… did that really just end… did that really just cost $ 9. I almost told the people in line to turn around give me the money and I could scare them.
Overall moral of the story is that you are better off going trick or treating at the mall during daylight hours. You would be more scared.

My review is of the new version of the Disturbed show now playing at the Oracle theater. Too much hype on the website. That’s what I hate about one line reviews taken from newspapers, websites, etc. They quote something without dating the comment to make you think this show is gonna be great and then people reuse the comments over and over. I caught a one liner that grabbed me, «so scary you’ll poop your pants». Not that I want to poop myself in a theater audience, but, if it’s that frightful why not check it out, right? This is part 3 of the Disturbed show, so it’s a new idea, new outline. The first year the show was fifty minutes and according to reviews, it was interactive with audience members standing along the walls of the theater while actors performed in the dark and lights flashed, enhancing the scary mood of the play. This time around it’s a fifteen minute show for a cost of $ 9 dollars. Think, crowded in a short hallway, eerie sounds, banging on the walls, led into a dimly lit room by a strange Frankenstein looking lady. They show you what you imagine to be horrid pictures of human beings altered for a strange doctor’s experiments whilst the Dr gives you a play by play. Standing in a room with low light with strange people moving about, if you scare easy this is not for you. Take your kids 9+, they’d have a great time. Better watched in groups, share the terror.
Much TOO short. After seeing reviews of the shows in previous years, I expected A LOT more.
The theater is very small and located on the east side of the street, parking can be found on side streets or try north a few blocks.

Well I may be bias but I do believe in this little theater. I recently did the set design for their newest show Termen Vox Machina. It’s a sci-​fi radio drama for the stage. Come see a crazy story about Lev Termen, come support a small theater and see an amazing performance!
For tickets and info please visit: