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[Theater Review] THE ILLUSION at BTF
5.28.06
BERKSHIRE THEATRE FESTIVAL
THE ILLUSION
by Pierre Corneille; freely adapted by Tony Kushner
Directed by Richard Corley
Through June 24
Review by Seth Rogovoy
(STOCKBRIDGE, Mass.) -- The Berkshire Theatre Festival opened its summer 2006 season with a performance of The Illusion that celebrates the tenth anniversary of the festival's Unicorn Stage as well as the art of theater itself.
The play, at least in Tony Kushner's freewheeling adaptation of the original by Pierre Corneille, was an apt choice for opening the summer, and is being given a terrific production under the hand of director Richard Corley and in the hands of his mostly young troupe of actors.
But as anyone who has seen Kushner's epic Angels in America will instantly recognize, it's Kushner's imprint that most colors this production and that gives it its heft and emotional impact, and provides the "theatrical ideas" that BTF says is the mission to which the Unicorn stage is dedicated.
Put simply, this Illusion is a play about the theater -- the illusion of the title is that of the make-believe that happens on a stage -- that examines the relationship between audience and playwright, audience and play, and art and reality.
It's big, heavy stuff, but in the hands of this script and this production, it's not weighted down by these big ideas. Rather, the ostensible drama that unfolds is a very enjoyable and, for the most part, well-acted theatrical comic romp through a love story in seventeenth century France involving royalty and servants and a revolving cast of characters.
The story is framed, however, with a visit to the cave of the sorceror Alcandre, played with Darth Vaderlike command by Austin Durant, by the bourgeois lawyer Pridamant of Avignon, played drily by Ben Beckley. Pridamant seeks information about his long lost, estranged son, variously called Calisto, Clindor, and Thegones (for reasons that won't be disclosed here), played straightforwardly by Philip Stetteland.
The sorceror, who in many ways is a stand-in for the playwright, or for theater or art itself (at one point he is called a "chemist of emotions"), is able to help Pridamant -- a stand-in for an inhibited, unimaginative playgoer -- find the truth, or essence, of what he has lost, through a series of scenes that show his son in various guises and situations revolving around his complicated love-life and position in the emperor's service. It is in these scenes, populated by characters played by the lovely and affecting Zenzele Cooper (amazingly making her first professional appearance on stage -- kudos to Cooper and to whoever cast her, and may we see much more of her); and the hysterically funny Sarah Kauffman, as a scheming, devious lady in waiting to Cooper's Melibea. Along with Matthew Crider, who plays a loquacious, pompous, and utterly ineffectual Emperor Matamore, Kauffman nearly steals the show, in a cast that is mostly well balanced with a few exceptions that shall go unnamed.
The action constantly shifts in a series of alternate realities, with talk of people "crossing over," in devices that Kushner used to even greater effect in Angels in America. These devices, which are acknowledged by some but not all of the characters in the play itself, underline the theme of illusion vs. reality, and art vs. life. Imaginative stagecraft is used to achieve these effects, including deft lighting, good use of the entire space, an exciting swordfight that will have you on the edge of your seat, and other Brechtian devices that acknowledge the artificiality of the theatrical construct while still allowing for there to be an entertaining drama enacted on the stage.
if the thought of going to see a seventeenth-century French play doesn't grab you, don't be misled -- this Illusion is totally contemporary, brimming with drama, comedy, action, and most important, ideas -- ideas and questions that will stick with you throughout the summer theater season.
--Seth Rogovoy, May 28, 2006
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