OPENING: NEIL TOBIN, NECROMANCER: NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE RETURNS OCTOBER 7 – NOVEMBER 4, 2018

ChiIL Live Shows On Our Radar

INTERACTIVE THEATER, DEAD-SERIOUS FUN RETURNS FOR HALLOWEEN TO ROSEHILL CEMETERY IN 

NEIL TOBIN, NECROMANCER: 

NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE, 

OCTOBER 7 – NOVEMBER 4 

Interactive, Magical Theatre about Life and Death in a Once-in-a-Lifetime Setting

In the original run, audiences and critics were spellbound by the performance. 

ChiIL Live Shows says, “Tobin raises very thought-provoking observations ... While the subject matter and the locale may suggest morbidity, Tobin's message is life-affirming." 

PicturethisPost.com said, “Near Death Experience is perfect for adults who love interactive and site-specific theatre that makes you think.” 

 Tobin's Award-Winning Exploration of Mortality and Mystery will Make You 

Laugh, Ponder and Wonder

Here at ChiIL Live Shows, we caught the original run of this show. If you didn't, you have another chance to catch this return engagement. Neil Tobin, Necromancer: Near Death Experience is back, at the lovely Rosehill Cemetery through November 4th. Check out our full review here. 

After a successful run at Rosehill Cemetery this spring, Neil Tobin, Necromancer: Near Death Experience returns to the historic Chicago site with more thought-provoking theatre just in time for the Halloween season. Chicago-area writer/producer/ performer Neil Tobin performs nine interactive, magical, site-specific solo shows about mortality at the rarely open to the public May Chapel on the grounds of Rosehill Cemetery, 5800 N. Ravenswood Ave. Performances are 60 minutes and begin at 3 p.m. Sunday, October 7; Saturday, October 13; Sunday, October 14; Saturday, October 20; Sunday, October 21; Saturday, October 27; Sunday, October 28; Saturday, November 3 and Sunday, November 4. Tickets are $25 - $30 and available at neardeathx.com. 



Winner of IndyFringe Theatre Festival's Audience Choice Award, this show is no horror show or cheap, spooky thrill. Tobin maintains a sophisticated tone, deftly fusing mortality and mystery into a life-affirming experience that's smart, darkly humorous, never scary and completely entertaining. According to Tobin, “this show is ultimately about the good that comes from improving our relationship with mortality.” So, though it does contain magical performance elements, this is no children's show. This is dead serious fun.  

Underscoring this exploration of life and death is the exceptional location: one of the most history-rich cemeteries in the nation. Rosehill Cemetery is on the National Registry of Historic Places; and its Gothic and Romanesque designed May Chapel — built in 1899 and rarely open to the public — provides a fitting setting for the proceedings.



Chicago-area writer/producer/performer Neil Tobin has a long track record of employing interactive magical and psychic performance skills to involve audiences in larger narratives and serious subjects (hence the “necromancer” title). Previous shows include Palace of the Occult (Eclectic Full Contact Theatre/Prop Thtr), which immersed guests in the world of a Jewish psychic entertainer trying to survive during the rise of the Nazis in 30s Berlin, and Supernatural Chicago, another site-specific piece which ran weekly for 10 years at Chicago's reputedly haunted Excalibur nightclub.

As magic advisor for the Mercury Theater, Tobin was on the creative team for the Jeff Award-winning The Addams Family and the Jeff Award-nominated Barnum. He's also the recipient of two Presidential Citations from the Society of American Magicians, and has served on the board of directors for the Psychic Entertainers Association.

After a successful run at Rosehill Cemetery this spring, Neil Tobin, Necromancer: Near Death Experience will return to this historic Chicago site with more thought-provoking theatre. Chicago-area writer/producer/ performer Neil Tobin performs nine interactive, magical, site-specific solo shows about mortality at the rarely open to the public May Chapel on the grounds of Rosehill Cemetery, 5800 N. Ravenswood Ave. Performances are 60 minutes and begin at 3 p.m. Sunday, October 7; Saturday, October 13; Sunday, October 14; Saturday, October 20; Sunday, October 21; Saturday, October 27; Sunday, October 28; Saturday, November 3 and Sunday, November 4. Tickets are $25 - $30 and available at neardeathx.com.

SHOWS ON OUR RADAR: Tangles & Plaques Return Engagement Through September 29, 2018

Chi, IL LIVE Shows On Our Radar:

Tangles & Plaques

at The Neo-Futurist Theater, 5153 N. Ashland Avenue 

A limited three-week return engagement through 

September 29, 2018

It was my great pleasure to catch the world premiere of Tangles & Plaques in October of 2017. This unique glimpse into the world of dementia patients and their caregivers is at once playful and painful, as well as enlightening. For all of us in the sandwich generation, caring for aging parents and children of our own, this is a must see.  



Tangles & Plaques attempts to demystify the experience of dementia in the language of theatre—offering a vivid, poignant, participatory experience that is unique to each audience and different every performance. Ensemble Member Kirsten Riiber and Director Jen Ellison conduct a symphony of impossible tasks and egregious forgery with the help of the audience and a cast including Riiber, Kaitlyn Andrews, Ida Cuttler, Justin Deming, Mike Hamilton, Nick Hart and Dan Kerr-Hobert. The ensemble interrogates the life and death of memories—how they persist, when they depart and the ways they distort over time.

Tangles & Plaques is Neo-Lab’s 2016-17 commission. Neo-Lab is an original works residency at The Neo-Futurist Theater originally launched in 2015 by the National Endowment for the Arts.

For more information visit www.neofuturists.org/events/tangles-plaques.