Old Wine in New Bottles
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Shaped into long-form sketches by Spolin’s son Paul Sills, director Sheldon Patinkin, and others, the games were showcased by the University of Chicago’s Compass Players in the late 50s, then refined at Second City on Wells Street. As played by hip adults, these children’s games were still mocking and slightly subversive. Carving up sacred cows and exploiting nervous laughter for all it was worth, Second City converted social fears–of nuclear annihilation, of racial friction–into satire. For instance, in a sketch from the 1987 revue Catch 22, “Life in the 80’s/Paranoid,” a woman learns a consoling Second City truth–that even paranoiacs really do have enemies.
To create Old Wine in New Bottles, a compendium of works from Second City’s 35 years, Patinkin and the six current Second Citizens, in consultation with cofounder Bernie Sahlins, pored over scripts, tapes, and reviews accumulated by producer emeritus Joyce Sloane. One result is the restoration of the tradition by which the comics moved the furniture around as they set up the next scene: “We now take you to…” But in a dubious move to create more audience seats, musical director Ruby Streak now sits onstage, crowding the never-capacious playing area and restricting the stage-left movement.
Other inoffensive skits target an anal-retentive bus driver who expels passengers who can’t pronounce Goethe Street, Christian Scientists praying for a broken chair to heal itself, truck drivers frenetically trying to stay awake (scary stuff today), and a bittersweet time trip: ex-radicals turned ad men who wonder if their riots made a difference, a case of trying to please left and right at once.
