Wait List
All performances are currently sold out, but the wait list is a great option. Please arrive at the theatre between 7:30 and 7:45 to add your name to that evening's wait list. Any unclaimed seats will be released to the wait list at 8:00.

Birdland

By Simon Stephens, directed by Jonathan Berry

When you can have whatever you want, whenever you want it, what do you ask for next? When you've pushed every boundary until there's nothing left to hold you in, how do you find your way back home? Birdland is a sexy, searing exploration of empathy and the impact of unchecked privilege by Olivier and Tony Award winner Simon Stephens.

Four Stars - "a spectacularly charismatic performance"
-Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune

Production Sponsors: 
Ken Burlington
Kassie Davis & Bruce Beatus
James T. O'Neill
Lisa & Randy White
 

Previews: March 31 - April 4, 2018
Press Opening: Thursday, April 5, 2018
Performances: April 5 - June 15, 2018
Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings at 8pm
Sunday afternoons at 3pm (excluding 4/8)
Full Performance Calendar

Accessibility
Audio Description and a Touch Tour will be available on Saturday, April 21.
Open Captioning will be available on Sunday, May 6.
Contact us at access@steeptheatre.com or 773-649-3186 for more information or to reserve tickets.

Running Time: Approximately two hours

Late Seating: Please note that late seating is not possible and that all tickets not claimed by the scheduled performance time may be released to the wait list. For questions about this, please contact our box office.

Content Advisory: This production is intended for adult audiences. For more information about the content of this show, please click here.

CAST: 
Lucy Carapetyan*
Dushane Casteallo
Cindy Marker*
Peter Moore*
Aila Peck
Jim Poole*
Joel Reitsma*
Amber Sallis*
 

PRODUCTION TEAM:
Director - Jonathan Berry*
Stage Manager - Jon Ravenscroft**
Set Designer - Joe Schermoly
Lighting Designer - Brandon Wardell**
Sound Designer & Composer - Thomas Dixon*
Costume Designer - Emily McConnell**
Props Designer - Jenny Pinson
Dialect Coach - Kathy Logelin
Assistant Director - Leah Raidt
Assistant Costume Designer - Serena Sandoval
Production Manager - Catherine Allen**
Technical Director - Brian Sprague

*Denotes Steep Company Member
**Denotes Steep Artistic Associate

In the Press

Four Stars
"Playwright Simon Stephens’ “Birdland,” the fabulous new show at Steep Theatre, is, above all else, a very serious and totally gripping attempt to find the answer to a simple but fascinating question: Can those who are handed bucket loads of cash, fame and nightly adulation actually retain their basic humanity?"
-Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune

"Director Jonathan Berry’s production and the central performance from Joel Reistma both blew me away."
-Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune

"All the more reason to credit this ensemble and its unflagging brilliance, as well as Jonathan Berry in what, by my estimation, is his best directorial work to date, .... “Birdland” is one of Steep’s most memorable works in recent memory..."
-Kevin Greene, Newcity Stage

"Joel Reitsma more than delivers."
-Conor McShane, PerformInk

"This is Theatre at its finest, in which there is no pretense of attempting to compete with movie screens, but instead keeping theatre intimate, visceral and a singularly unique and private experience for each and every show."
-WC Turck

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About Simon Stephens

Simon Stephens is an English playwright whose plays have been widely produced in the UK, Europe, Australia and the US. Stephens is an Artistic Associate at the Lyric Hammersmith and has been an Associate Playwright of Steep Theatre since 2013. In addition to his Olivier and Tony Award for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Stephens has received the 2001 Pearson Award for Best Play for Port; the 2005 Olivier Award for Best New Play for On the Shore of the Wide World;  Theater Heute's Award for Motortown in 2007, Pornography in 2008 and Wastwater in 2011; and the 2009 Manchester Evening News Award for Best Production for Punk Rock.  His play Heisenberg premiered in New York in 2015, opened on Broadway in 2016, and is currently enjoying productions all over the globe.  Stephens visited Steep in 2012 and 2016, during which he performed public readings of his work Sea Wall and Song from Faraway, and Steep presented the first ever public reading of his play Blindsided, a new work commissioned by the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester, England. 

Stephens' other works include Bluebird, Herons, One Minute, Country Music, Harper Regan, I am the Wind, Three Kingdoms, Morning, a new version of Ibsen's A Doll's House, Carmen Disruption, The Funfair, a new version of Ödön von Horváth's Kasimir and Karoline, his version of Brecht and Weill's The Threepenny Opera, Nuclear War, Fatherland, his English language version of Obsession, and his new adaptation of Chekhov's The Seagull.