Mini-Review: Evanston Salt Costs Climbing, at First Floor Theater
hello! the below mini-review/reflection was posted on my personal instagram, but I thought I would share it here for those not on that platform. this will hopefully become a recurring feature, for both plays and films. hope you enjoy!
all photos here credited to Michael Brosilow.
something’s not right in Evanston.
the winters are getting worse and your friends are getting sadder. the roads are getting icier and the woman in the purple hat is looking for you. your coworkers are getting more distant and you really hope the heat will start working again. at least we have each other.
David Lynch kept coming to mind throughout Will Arbery’s “Evanston Salt Costs Climbing,” now in a bewildering, mesmerizing, intoxicatingly bizarre production with First Floor Theater leave it to the underbelly of dread resting below the mundanity of suburbia, or the committed and stylish performances delivered by an engaging and earnest quartet of actors (some of my favorite storefront theatre acting i've seen in recent memory), or to the aforementioned woman in the purple hat who seems like a distant relative of the figure hiding in the alley behind Winkie’s in MULHOLLAND DRIVE. above all else, Arbery’s play contains that magical essence that combines lyrical language and surreal circumstances with characters dripping with empathy and feeling, that trusts an audience to lean into storytelling that eschews linear, legible understanding in favor of deeper emotional truth. director Micah Figueroa leads with heart first and foremost, resulting in a production that’s haunting and mystical and deeply, deeply sad; my ideal theater experience, to be honest.
the winters are getting worse and the roads are getting icier and things are getting bleaker. at least we have each other, in Evanston.
“Evanston Salt Costs Climbing” performs at the Den Theatre (1331 N. Milwaukee Ave) through June 14th 2025. Tickets are available HERE.
