[O]ne of the city's most innovative and prolific collectives....—American Theater Magazine

CLUMSY SUBLIME by Barrie Cole

September 1–October 12, 2013

Prop Thtr • 3502 N. Elston • Chicago

Founded in 1988 by Jenny Magnus and Beau O'Reilly—as the Curious Theatre “Branch” of the alt-rock cabaret act Maestro Subgum and the Whole—Curious has consistently worked with an ensemble of artists in a non-hierarchical decision-making process, through which the philosophy of collaboration as a social force is explored on every level.

Curious Theatre Branch has produced more than 100 full productions of world-premiere shows in 20 years, amazing audiences year after year in how much can be accomplished for so little. Curious has developed its own recognizable style, using an economy of means and production to make deeper and deeper, rather than larger and larger, work.

In 1995, Beau O'Reilly was named one of the 50 most influential people in Chicago theater by Chicago Magazine. In 1998, Beau O'Reilly and Jenny Magnus were named among the Artists of the Year by the Chicago Tribune, and nearly every year since 1998 Newcity has included them among the 50 most influential people in Chicago theater.

Curious's Waiting for Godot and The Caretaker were named among the top five theater productions of 2006 and 2009, respectively, by Newcity. In 2007, Curious Theatre Branch won an Orgie Award for Original Theater for the year-long Samuel Beckett festival, No Danger of the Spiritual Thing: 100 Years of Beckett (best ensemble), which was lauded at the Museum of Contemporary Art.

If Curious Theatre Branch had been based in New York... this troupe of mature and accomplished performers would be receiving national attention. Graduate students would be writing masters' theses on its intense, collectively conceived work; progressive magazines would be writing laudatory articles; its shows would be appearing on college art series all across the country... this rich, complex, and stylistically daunting work is every bit as fascinating as, say, Mabou Mines...—Chicago Tribune

Going to the Curious Theatre Branch is like visiting the back room of your favorite bar: the place is a dump, the people are friendly, and by the time you leave, your mind will be wonderfully altered.—Chicago Reader