The Conspirators Bring DUCK SOUP to Stars & Garters

The Conspirators will present Duck Soup by Harry Ruby and Burt Kalmar, adapted from the Marx Brothers' movie for the stage by Sid Feldman and directed by Wm. Bullion, at the NEW Stars & Garters venue, 3914 N. Clark St., October 24 - November 23. The production includes two preview performances on Friday, Oct. 24 and Saturday, Oct. 25 at 7 p.m., with the press opening Thursday, Oct. 30 at 7 p.m. The regular performance schedule is Thursdays - Sundays at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15 for previews, $30 for the regular run, and may be purchased online.

Duck Soup Synopsis: Stop them if you've heard this one before—an influential billionaire installs a crackpot president who hires incompetents into his cabinet and starts a war out of complete vanity. Ring a bell? The Conspirators lovingly dismantle the Marx Brothers classic film in their own inimitable style.

“Instead of our usual political satire, we just wanted to do something fun this time,” offered Adapter and Producer Sid Feldman, “pure comedy without the commentary.” Director Bullion added, “This will TOTALLY take our mind off of our national decline and get our minds onto Freedonia's national decline.”

The cast and production team for Duck Soup are to be announced. 

Wm. Bullion is a veteran tragicomedian, director and actor on the fringe of the Chicago theater fringe and beyond. Bullion is an emeritus member of The Factory Theater, for whom he directed Prophet$ and Born Ready. He started Sliced Bread Productions in 1988 and put up some fine work before it folded in 2008. He co-founded The Conspirators in 2016 and has proudly directed their oeuvre, including Chicago Cop Macbeth; Viva la Mort; Commedia Divina: It's Worse Than That; The Ineptidemic; Accidental Death of a Black Motorist; The Deckchairs, or Make the Titanic Great Again and The Resistible Rise of Herr Helmut Drumpf—but he was a fool to think starting another theater group in Chicago is a viable, sustainable idea. Yet, here we are.

Sid Feldman co-founded The Conspirators and has written plays, adaptations, screenplays, reviews and essays. He has produced plays, concerts and events for numerous organizations, including New Crime and Sliced Bread Productions (also with Wm. Bullion).

The Conspirators are a (newfangled) theater and performance collective in Chicago dedicated to provoking thought and action through dynamic, immediate theater art. The Conspirators work exclusively in a style of neo-Commedia called “The Style”—a highly theatrical performance mode developed by movie stars Tim Robbins and John Cusack from the techniques of Ariane Mnouchkine, Commedia dell'Arte, Bugs Bunny cartoons and punk rock, as historically performed by New Crime Prod. (R.I.P.) and The Actors' Gang. The company also offers free Style workshops to interested performers of all calibers.

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