CHICAGO -- A Chicago critic who successfully doubles as a playwright (former critic Mimi Kramer once called him one of the five best unknown playwrights in the U.S.), Adam Langer is the author of The Blank Page, a comedy about cross-purposes at a Midwestern "'zine" that is based on the author's experiences as a freelance journalist. The Blank Page, which has been seen in Chicago, Massachusetts and Manhattan, was recently made into a 35 mm film. That experience furnished Langer with material for another satire: Film Flam chronicles the 'unmaking' of a supposedly independent film. It opens Feb. 20 at Live Bait Theater in a staging by Kay Martinovich, one of this city's most promising new directors. The subject: "a dizzying vortex of con games and deceit in the independent film world."

For information, call Live Bait Theater at (773) 871-1212.

-- By Lawrence Bommer
Chicago Correspondent