"Calamity West is one of the best playwrights in Chicago. Or maybe the country. Or the universe." - Chicago Reader
HINTER
World Premiere
Steep Theatre Company, 2018
Directed by Brad Akin
Written by Calamity West
Whispers and rumors had been swirling around the Gruber family farm long before the bodies were discovered on that cold April day. It's 1922, and a remote community in Bavaria is reeling in the aftermath of World War I: gender roles are shifting, a generation gap is emerging, and farmers are battling poverty in the shadow of a growing urban intelligentsia. Inspired by a chilling and true unsolved crime, Hinter is a darkly comic thriller by one of Chicago’s most exciting new playwrights.
REVIEWS
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"At its heart, Hinter is a story of women under threat from men, and the fact of that looming violence is never placed out of sight. But West’s commitment to paradox, to complexity, bleeds throughout the play and into the way she draws her characters, all of whom (with the exception of Andres) are complex, feisty, irritable, kind, loving, and entirely incapable of being easily resolved. Between the characters and West’s somersaulting story structure, Hinter manages to be something that only the best mystery stories can achieve: It’s one you want to watch twice."
"Hinter is one of the best plays I’ve seen in the past year. It’s incredibly impactful, with dynamic characters that don’t need to tell you who they are with words. The mystery is so compelling as to make you wish there wasn’t an intermission so you can find out more about what happened and why, and the set and lighting transport you to another place fully and effortlessly."
"Whether because of the mystery or the milieu, this may very well be West’s most enticing play to date."