Prop Thtr Group presents
Richard Henzel
Lord Buckley's
Wig Twisters!
A new solo show from Richard Henzel, whose previous solo work has included shows depictign Mark Twain, Ronald Reagan, Carl Sandburg, Daniel Hudson Burnham, and Frank Lloyd Wright. As His Lordship, Henzel re-creates a series of Buckley's "Wig Twisters"--"hip jive semantic translations" of classical and religious literature, ranging from Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven" ("The Bugbird" in translation) to The Gospel of Jesus or, "The Nazz."
Reviews of Richard Henzel as Lord Buckley in Return of the Hip Messiah:
"Richard Henzel gives an astonishing performance that seems more an
act of channeling than character portrayal. His swirl of words and concentrated
physicality is one of the season's great accomplishments."
Andrew Patner, Chicago Sun-Times
"...as depicted in an intensely impressive stream-of-consciousness performance
from the superbly cast Richard Henzel, Buckley was also an arresting performer
who peppered his monologues with equal measures of Shakespearean quotation
and drug-induced nonsense."
Chris Jones,The Chicago Tribune
"Henzel's Buckley comes off as a sort of cross between minstrel-show
clown, jazz poet, and Frank Morgan's Wizard of Oz--an enigmatic eccentric
whose grandiose airs mix put-on with self-delusion."
Albert Williams,The Chicago Reader