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Music and art by Jon Langford
written by Mark Guarino
Jon Langford, founding member of the legendary British punk rock collective The Mekons, and lead singer with the Chicago band The Waco Brothers, will be on hand at Victory Gardens Biograph Theater to join his fans and new play enthusiasts for a workshop performance of All The Fame of Lofty Deeds, a new music/theater/art project based on Langford¹s art and music.
Based on Langford's art and music, All the Fame of Lofty Deeds is written by Chicago rock journalist and playwright Mark Guarino, and directed by Victory Gardens Resident Director Andrea J. Dymond. Sunday's workshop performance, presented as part of Victory Gardens' new Fresh Squeezed series, will feature projections of Langford's eclectic country folk artwork, as two musicians and a cast of five actors perform on the Victory Gardens Biograph mainstage. While he's not performing in the play itself, Langford will play a short set at a post-show event.
Like Langford's 2004 CD of the same name, All the Fame of Lofty Deeds traces the ascent of a wide-eyed young country singer from rural obscurity to tinsel-town opulence during the middle decades of the last century. His life parallels the optimism, grandeur, betrayals and despair of the country and culture that spawned him (and eventually suck him dry). Lofty wants it all and gets a little more, climbs the showbiz beanstalk, sacks his band and steals a gulp from the poison cup before sinking back into the dirt and darkness from whence he came.
Victory Gardens Theater, Chicago's #1 presenter of new plays, has been developing Lofty Deeds into a live theater piece for several months. In late March, Langford, Guarino and Dymond presented an informal reading of Lofty Deeds in the company's rehearsal room for an audience of 60. Monday night's performance, presented on Victory Gardens' 299-seat Biograph mainstage, will follow an intensive workshop of the piece with a full band, actors and stage technicians.
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