Booth One - Celebrating Culture And Conversation

Colin Cordwell, proprietor of the The Red Lion English pub, brings his uncanny insights and encyclopedic knowledge to Booth One this week. Colin has seen it all in his 40 years watching "a conveyor belt of humanity go past me" behind one of Chicago's great bars. He regales Gary with tales of his father John, an architect who became a POW in WWII. John designed a theatre in his prison camp and became a forger who was part of The Great Escape. Colin describes some of the many memorable characters who have walked into the Red Lion, including Christopher Hitchens, with whom he had an extended conversation about WWI poetry. Calling the exchange "a labyrinth of obscurata," it's an astonishing glimpse into just one small corner of Colin's ability to speak eloquently about so many subjects, including history, poetry, philosophy and war. A fine actor earlier in his career, Colin has a soft spot for those who walk the boards. Colin and his father have generously given free rehearsal space to nascent theater compan