‘In Good Company’ Invites West Siders To Walk, Talk, And Wrestle With Belonging

On a bright Sunday afternoon, a small crowd gathered outside Theatre Y’s West Side home at 3611 W. Cermak Rd., ready to set off on a three-mile walking performance called In Good Company.

The site-specific, traveling work — part theatre, part public conversation — is designed to transform ordinary city streets into a stage for civic imagination. Over the course of three hours, participants are invited to reflect on community, democracy, and belonging.

Created by Theatre Y Artistic Director Melissa Lorraine with dramaturg Evan Hill, ensemble member Eric K. Roberts, rapper and curator The Law of Huey, Chicago’s first Youth Poet Laureate E’mon Lauren, and writer-political scientist Bryan Brickner, In Good Company weaves together theatre, dance, music, and dialogue. The Chicago run, which ends on Nov. 8 and Nov. 9, features guest artists Marvin Tate, Emily Bynum, Kaniya Redmond, Roesha “Ro” Townsel, and the Stone Temple Choir.

Sunday’s performance began with a circle of chairs — each one, a performer explained, representing “a different void.” Audience members were asked to imagine those they dislike, those loved by the people they dislike, and those who love their own antagonists.

“Each chair holds something about ourselves we’d rather not examine,” one voice said. “These lovers of the unlovable — their love makes our hatred feel imperfect.”

As the piece unfolded, participants took turns inhabiting these chairs, improvising dialogue about empathy and contradiction. “While we’re here, I think we’re ready not to be ready,” another performer offered. “Ready to represent some good company — some better company.”

The exchanges blurred the line between audience and actor. When one participant hesitated, a performer gently reassured her: “This show is about doing something uncomfortable for others.”

The group then set out through the surrounding neighborhood — a slow procession that drew curious glances from passing drivers and residents near Cermak and Kedzie. Along the way, performers recited fragments of dialogue that echoed the day’s central questions: “When we see the world differently, how do we still move forward together?” and “How do we rehearse and embody solidarity?”

After the three-mile walk, everyone returned to Theatre Y for a free shared meal and conversations among community members.

Founded in 2006, Theatre Y has long blurred the boundaries between performance and community action. The company, now permanently located on the border of North Lawndale and Little Village, operates on a member-supported “free theater” model and has staged work everywhere from La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in New York to Illinois prisons.

The In Good Company project was developed in collaboration with Germany’s Goethe-Institut and Helgard Haug of the Berlin-based collective Rimini Protokoll, known for expanding the possibilities of theater in public space.

For Theatre Y, the walk is both literal and metaphorical: a continuation of the 500-mile Camino de Santiago pilgrimage ensemble members made in 2017, re-imagined for Chicago’s streets.

West Siders have one more chance to experience In Good Company this Saturday and Sunday. Click here for details.