A meditation on endings and new beginnings, Lottery Day is a fitting capstone for Ike Holter’s seven-play Chicago Cycle. Each play cast a spotlight on overwhelmingly unsolvable issues like gentrification, violence, politics, and community identity in the fictional 51st ward of Rightlynd, and Lottery Day attempts to reckon with the sum of these parts. Through pointed references to Chicago politics, Holter takes aim at entities such as Rahm Emanuel, Lori Lightfoot, the reviled police academy, and the thinly veiled “Applewood Foundation,” all of which strive to change disinvested neighborhoods by making choices that they will never have to feel the impact of.
Rounding out this impressive cast are James Vincent Meredith as Mallory’s love interest Avery; a spastically peppy Tommy Rivera-Vega as Ezekiel, the aspiring rapper; Tony Santiago as Nunley, the affable hustler with questionable business sense; and Aurora Adachi-Winter as the peppy and overbearing entrepreneur Tori. Each of these people is broken in his or her own way, yet they are all united in their loyalty to Mallory.
Through 4/28: Wed-Thu 7:30 PM, Fri 8 PM, Sat 2 and 8 PM, Sun 2 PM; also Tue 4/16, 7:30 PM, and Sun 4/21, 7:30 PM, Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn, 312-443-3800, goodmantheatre,org, $15-$55.
