By Ashley Robinson
Songs by Dan Gillespie Sells
Based on Annie Proulx’s short story
Directed by Jonathan Butterell
The Jentes Family Courtyard Theater
Originally produced @sohoplace by Nica Burns, Adam Blanshay Productions, Lambert Jackson Productions, and Katy Lipson for Aria Entertainment
Brokeback Mountain
By Ashley Robinson
Songs by Dan Gillespie Sells
Based on Annie Proulx’s short story
Directed by Jonathan Butterell
The Jentes Family Courtyard Theater
Originally produced @sohoplace by Nica Burns, Adam Blanshay Productions, Lambert Jackson Productions, and Katy Lipson for Aria Entertainment
“Electrifying”
“Compelling”
Closing the season is the North American premiere production of Ashley Robinson’s new adaptation of the captivating novella that inspired the Academy Award-winning film. Wyoming 1963: a wild landscape of extreme rural poverty and insular conservative communities. When Ennis and Jack take jobs on the isolated Brokeback Mountain, all their certainties of life change forever as they flounder in unexpected emotional waters of increasing depth. This intense tale of an irresistible and hidden love spans twenty years and is interwoven with soulful, original Country Western songs, performed live onstage.
Playwright Ashley Robinson said, “I’m thrilled that Chicago Shakespeare will host the US Premiere of Brokeback Mountain. Chicago is the perfect city in which to premiere this working-class story of star-crossed lovers. I’m looking forward to bringing the play home, at a time when this beloved story feels more resonant and needed than ever.”
The novel’s author Annie Proulx shared, “Brokeback Mountain has been recreated in several different forms, each with its own distinctive moods and impact. Ashley’s script is fresh and deeply moving, opening sight lines not visible in the original nor successive treatments. The story has always projected a sense of the difficult fated solitudes that echo in Wyoming’s tawny landscapes. The joinery of script, actors, director, theatre, audiences becomes a complex watershed of dozens of mountain streams finally merging into a river of sensibility.”
May 2026
7:00 PM / Thursday , May 28
7:00 PM / Friday , May 29
7:00 PM / Saturday , May 30
2:00 PM / Sunday , May 31
SUN, JUN 21 Audio Description
WED, JUN 24 Open Captioning
FRI, JUN 26 ASL Interpretation
May 2026
7:00 PM / Thursday , May 28
7:00 PM / Friday , May 29
7:00 PM / Saturday , May 30
2:00 PM / Sunday , May 31
SUN, JUN 21 Audio Description
WED, JUN 24 Open Captioning
FRI, JUN 26 ASL Interpretation
SUN, JUN 21 Audio Description
WED, JUN 24 Open Captioning