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"Nelson & Simone"
- Mini-review: Maybe too long, but an overall satisfying night at the theater
- Location: Live Bait Theater, 3914 N. Clark St., Chicago
- Times: 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, 7 p.m. Sunday
- Parking: On the street
- Tickets: $15 to $20
- Box office: (773) 871-1212 or online at www.TicketWeb.com
They were a preposterous couple: Nelson and Simone.
He was Nelson Algren, a hard-boiled writer of the Chicago school; cynical, prickly, a guy who counted among his friends thieves, con men and prostitutes.
She was Simone de Beauvoir, a refined, over-educated French intellectual. Her friends were some of the most important thinkers in post-war Europe. Her longtime lover and companion was existentialist philosopher Jean Paul Sartre.
Yet, somehow their relationship worked and for two decades or more they wrote each other, lived in each other's cities (Paris and Chicago), and appeared in each other's writings.
At least Nelson appeared in Simone's work. If you read "The Mandarins" he is the smart-mouthed American writer who pops in among the French writers, thinkers, and poseurs.
John Susman's new play at the Live Bait Theater in Chicago tells the full...