Archive for August, 2002
The Illusion
Critical Reviews
The Illusion is a mystifying tale
By Allen Crossett, Drama Critic, August 15, 2002On the surface, The Illusion is easy enough. Pridamant, an aging father, seeks news of his prodigal son from the sorcerer Alcandre. Fifteen years earlier the father disowned his son and drove him away, and now, before the father dies, he wants to see his son again. He says he wants to tell his son that he loves him.
What the magician offers is a vision of three episodes from the son’s life. Names change, relationships change, and each of the scenes takes place in a different setting, and only when the final vision reaches its climax does the father discover the truth. And this truth he doesn’t much like.
Pierre Corneille wrote L’Illusion Comique (Theatrical Illusion) in 1636 as a young man, before El Cid and other tragedies established his fame. About 350 years later a young Tony Kushner came along and freely adapted the work, before his fame was defined by his Pulitzer Prize-winning Angels in America. There is something unmistakably youthful about The Illusion for it’s a work in which heady ideas can swirl in metaphor.
In creating his version, Kushner pares away much of the ornamentation of 17th century French theater, and he takes Corneille’s five-act comedy and reduces it to a lively two acts. This is not a translation, however; Kushner’s version is in many ways a new play.
Summarizing the story is much easier than offering an interpretation, even when the production of this curious piece now at The Shakespeare Festival is directed by Paul Mullins. This talented director last season staged Ionesco’s Rhinoceros with stunning success, and now he returns with this tantalizing dark comedy.
What does it all mean? One approach is to see The Illusion as a play about love. Near the end, the sorcerer explains to Pridamant, “Love, which seems the realest thing, is really nothing at all.” And a moment later he adds, “The art of illusion is the art of love, and the art of love is the blood-red heart of the world.”
The Illusion is also a play about the theater where artist and audience work together to create reality out of make-believe. The setting is the cave of the magician, near a small town in the south of France during the 17th century, and program notes include an extended excerpt from the “Allegory of the Cave” from The Republic. In this passage, Plato argues that true reality is found not in the world of sight and the other senses but rather in the higher, spiritual world of the ideal and universal.
This is the idea that seems to permeate the production, and it starts with the audience at the theater first accepting the actors who portray the father and the magician as real people. And then it moves to those actors becoming an audience for the three episodes that function as short plays within the frame of the larger play.
And within those episodes there could well be yet another level…or more.
Mullins is working with a very impressive cast that includes John FitzGibbon as the father, with Edmond Genest as the magician and Craig Wallace as his servant. Robert Petkoff portrays the son, and Margot White appears in each episode as the woman he loves, with Amanda Ronconi as her servant. Completing the ensemble is Lorenzo Pisoni as the son’s rival, with Paul Niebanck as a lunatic.
Adding immeasurably to the exotic mood of this production is the superb work of set designer Michael Schweikardt, who finds all sorts of clever ways for the setting to explore reality and illusion, and costume designer Jacqueline Firkins, whose 17th century costumes are magnificent.
The work of lighting designer Michael Giannitti and sound designer Jason A Tratta also contribute significantly.
Parts of The Illusion are very funny while other parts are strange and mystifying. The direction by Paul Mullins, however, provides clarity in both its exquisite visual imagery and its reflection of intelligent thought.
“The Illusion” will be staged through Aug. 25 at F.M. Kirby Shakespeare Theatre, Madison. For tickets, call (973) 408-5600.
Excerpts from Naomi Siegel’s review, Montclair Times and the Item of Milburn:
With French neo-classicist Pierre Corneille’s 1636 comedy “L’illusion Comique,” the writer has chosen a distinctly lightweight vehicle for adaptation, albeit one shadowed by themes of loss, family dysfunction and betrayal. Written in 1990, Kushner’s “The Illusion,” currently being presented by the New Jersey Shakespeare Festival as their third main stage production of the season, pays tribute both to the classic conventions of Corneille’s comic form while, at the same time, tweaking those same conventions.
The result is a Corneille-Kushner hybrid, to quote critic Jack Helbig—a two level entertainment serving as a meditation on the power of theater and storytelling and on the function of memory, while offering a genuinely moving story of a remorseful old man’s search for his long-lost son. Kushner doesn’t hesitate to pare down the work to two acts, yet, when the muse hits, add several scenes of his own.
A wonderful ensemble effort by the Festival cast under the inspired, stylish direction of Paul Mullins. In the role of Calisto, handsome Robert Petkoff makes a fervent, endlessly libidinous wandering son. His female counterpart–referred to as Melibea, then Isabelle, and finally Hippolyta—-is played by lovely Margot White. Ms. White’s adolescent Melibea starts out with the singsong, know-it-all plaint of a “valley girl,” and moves, ultimately as Hippolyta, into the heartrending regret experienced by a betrayed, wounded wife.
As Elicia/Lyse/Clarina–wily maid, lusty lover and concerned confidante–Amanda Ronconi performs with infinite charm and spunk. Lorenzo Pisoni undertakes the swashbuckling roles of Pleribo/Adraste/Prince Florilame with panache, and his display of swordsmanship against the agile Mr. Petkoff, elegantly choreographed by fight-meister Rick Sordelet, draws gasps from the audience.
Lending a manic comic note, with enough buffoonery to provoke gales of laughter yet sufficient suggestion of deep-seated vulnerability to earn our sympathy, is the superb Paul Niebanck as Matamore. His is a truly artful comic riff, mining, to perfection, the verbose braggadocio of this pedantic wordsmith (maid Lyse is branded a “dread Medusa of the linen closet,” for example). I loved his work here.
Rounding out the cast with distinction are John Fitzgibbon as the searching father Pridamant and Craig Wallace as both the Amanuensis, mute assistant to the sorcerer, and as Isabelle’s harsh and dictatorial father.
Director Mullins has opted for a dark, rather somber palette for the play. Following set designer Michael Schweikardt’s marvelously voluptuous red felt roses that anchor the first fantasy, there are few visual fireworks to keep us riveted as the play moves on. So much the shame, given the opening touch of whimsy that this talented designer offers as an eye-popping tease.
Performances of “The Illusion” at the New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, Drew University, Madison, conclude August 25. For ticket information call (973) 408-5600.