Well, this is just mad: Chekhov’s Cherry Orchard has a stage direction that specifies the sound of a “breaking string”. Theater Oobleck’s taken that and RUN with it in The Hunchback Variations Opera, wherein Beethoven and Quasimodo try to make that sound resonate, or something. I don’t know. Like I said, it’s mad. And it is an opera, a small one, but still an opera, and Theater Oobleck is one courageous company. The show’s up through the 19th at the Victory Gardens Theater on N. Lincoln, and it’s free if you’re broke. (FULL ARTICLE: Albert Williams, Chicago Reader)