Body Politic makes slick comeback with `Fashion' ? Richard Christiansen, Chicago Tribune 10/14/92 - "Fashion," which brings the Body Politic Theatre roaring back into production, is a great surprise, both in subject matter and in presentation.

The subject matter, though dealing with the fashionable cause of bashing the greed-mad '80s, comes from contemporary England, focusing in detail on London politics and the Conservative government.

The presentation-staged at the Gallery Theatre while the Body Politic's home base is being profitably rented out to the long-running musical "Wild Men!"-is exceedingly slick, a high-tech production served up in high style by a theater company that a year ago was financially strapped and all but down for the count.

Employing nine actors capably wielding a variety of accents and set in an ultra-modern, ultra-expensive advertising office fitted with sophisticated television monitors and cameras, the staging by Albert Pertalion is smart, punchy and sleek.

Doug Lucie's play, in its American premiere here, is predictable and manipulative in its machinations, and its extensive analysis of Margaret Thatcher-style politics may be a bit much for American audiences; but the dialogue is often very witty, and Lucie's use of TV gimmickry, as an important image in the action, is ingenious, as well as apt.

All that, plus sharp, cynical repartee, skulduggery and treachery, sudden violence, sex of all sorts, and full frontal male nudity.

At the forefront of this modern moral melodrama is Paul Cash (Paul Boyer), a handsome, successful, amoral money-grubber whose latest advertising job is to sell a new female candidate for Parliament.

Helping him in this project are a brilliant, sodden, leftist film director (Gary Houston, in good, hard-bitten form with some of the play's sharpest lines); an ambitious, gay copywriter (Daniel J. Bryant); and a former Labor member of Parliament who is now a well-tailored right-wing newspaper columnist (Donald Brearley, quite the toff).

Also on board are Cash's faithful Scottish super-secretary (a lovely piece of work by Belinda Bremner); the director's svelte wife, with whom Cash is having an affair (Kristy Munden); a brash male hustler whom Cash has picked up as a protege (Mat McGinnis); a chauvinistic, fat cat MP who is grooming, and bedding down, the candidate (David Nava); and the candidate herself, a steely opportunist hidden beneath a farmer's daughter exterior (Gina Grimes).

They're all quite glossy in this very polished production.



Making a `Fashion' statement ? Lawrence Bommer, ChicagoTribune 10/9/92 - ?On Wednesday a dirty world gets its dramatic deserts when the Body Politic, Chicago's oldest off-Loop theater, returns from a retrenchment hiatus to offer the U.S. premiere of "Fashion." The trendy play exposes the vicious power games, amorality and opportunism of the high-stakes London advertising world.

Skewering politicians, capitalists and artists, Doug Lucie's script strings together adultery, a charge of rape, nudity, a political sellout and a vicious beating. The setting is a high-tech media consulting firm that grooms political candidates, packages soft-core porn for cable TV and pursues whatever profitmaker is in fashion. Albert Pertalion directs a cast of nine.



?Body Politic Finds a Space for Fashion? - Lewis Lazare, Chicago Reader 9/3/92 - ?The roller-coaster ride is over, for now anyway, at the Body Politic Theatre. After weeks of knuckle-gnawing uncertainty, the theater company's management apparently knows where (the Gallery-Chopin Theatre at 1541 W. Division) and roughly when (early October with any luck) they will open their first play of the season, the American premiere of Doug Lucie's Fashion, a racy politically oriented comedy set in Britain. Artistic director Albert Pertalion says, "The show has adultery, two nude scenes, and a vicious beating with carnal overtones."

Only a month ago Pertalion acknowledged that the particulars of Fashion's first performance, originally slated for September 9, were totally up in the air. Among other things he claimed he was waiting to find out whether the hit comedy Wild Men, which has a lease through December on the Body Politic space at 2261 N. Lincoln, would post a closing notice in August and vacate the premises. Asked several weeks ago about a potential closing, Wild Men producer James Stern said he had no intention of shutting down his show so soon.

Meanwhile, in early August, the Body Politic was thinking of renting a different venue should its home space not be available early this month to open Fashion as planned. Pertalion looked into renting space at as many as 30 theaters. Set designer Arthur Ridley was even working on two possible designs so he could promptly move forward once a space was found. At the time Pertalion said, "Some quick decisions will have to be made."

But as late as last week, with rehearsals for Fashion already in progress, Body Politic management was still weighing its dwindling options on where to mount the show. The decision making apparently was complicated by board president Dick Wier's periodontal surgery, which rendered him incapable of speaking. One space still being pursued was the 500-seat Wellington Theater, more than twice the size of Body Politic's 192-seat home space. According to a source familiar with the negotiations, Wellington landlord Michael Leavitt had offered the theater for approximately $3,000 a week, plus a percentage of the show's weekly box office gross.

But Body Politic staffers realized the financial folly of producing in such a large and expensive space, and the Wellington deal was scrapped. Though the Gallery-Chopin is far beyond the boundaries of the Lincoln Park area that Body Politic regulars are familiar with, the much smaller Bucktown facility seemed a more sensible venue. It remains to be seen whether Body Politic audiences will venture there.

In order to produce Fashion at the Gallery-Chopin, Body Politic had to postpone opening night about a month because a production of Native Speech by Tight & Shiny Productions is slated to run there through September 26, with a possible one-week extension. Consequently the nine cast members in Fashion will take a monthlong hiatus after two weeks of rehearsals. A staffer said subscribers will be notified of the revamped performance schedule, and come October they'll see whether the Body Politic has gotten its act in order. "I think all the pieces have been put together," notes Pertalion. "Keep your fingers crossed."