Hedy Weiss’ “Invasion”
After Sun-Times theatrical critic Hedy Weiss wrote “…those still thinking of the horrific terrorist attacks at the Boston Marathon might well be tempted to ask: What practical alternative to profiling would you suggest?” in her review of Silk Road Rising’s production of “Invasion!” (which satirizes racial profiling against Arab males) the Chicago theater scene immediately exploded into debate, questioning the validity of supporting racial profiling in a theatrical critique, prompting the Sun-Times to remove the sentence and throw an editor’s note up below the online version of the review (“A previous version of this review contained language about racial profiling that may have been perceived as expressing a political opinion.”) and leading Weiss to double down on her original position. What went (mostly) unnoticed was that Weiss otherwise loved the show—she just didn’t “buy the play’s arguments.”
Silk Road Rising, (312)857-1234, silkroadrising.org
Best of Chicago 2013