Open Rehearsal: The Court Theatre Blog
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February 25, 2010
Kushner’s ILLUSION: Production History
By Zachary Moull, Dramaturgy Assistant
Zachary is a graduate student at the University of Chicago in the Master of Arts Program in the Humanities (MAPH)
Tony Kushner’s Adaptation of Corneille’s L’Illusion Comique was first performed as a reading at the New York Theater Workshop in 1988, and received its premiere at the Hartford Stage Company in 1989. It has since been popular in theatres across the country, and gained international notice following Kushner’s rise to fame with the success of Angels in America in 1993-94.
Features of the two initial productions neatly illustrate the common concerns of many productions of this play: the desire to create a stage environment suitable to the conjuring of illusion, and the need to work through the complex transhistorical resonances between Kushner, Corneille, and their works.
The New York Theater Workshop performance took place in front of a set consisting of perspective drawings of classical pillars. This can be read as a comment on illusion—a sort of visual pun playing on the use of forced perspective in stage design that pithily suggests theatrical distortion. But the design choice also contains a statement on the mode of adaptation used in the work itself, insofar as Kushner makes a classic play present on stage in a mediated form—he is working, the stage suggests, from Corneille’s design if not always from his realization of that design.
Legend has it that the Hartford production was more overtly haunted by Corneille. As Sylviane Gold describes in the New York Times, the production was beset by technical difficulties until Kushner and director Mark Lamos decided to reprint the program to say not “The Illusion by Tony Kushner, based on a play by Pierre Corneille” but “The Illusion by Pierre Corneille, freely adapted by Tony Kushner.” All the technical glitches stopped on cue, save for one: Kushner’s name was mysteriously wiped from the marquee on the night before the show opened. The play continues to be performed and published under this revised heading, lest the original author return to seek his due. Kushner, perhaps in light of this experience, told the Times that after he is dead his plays are “fair game” for those who might wish to adapt his work as he adapted Corneille’s.
February 23, 2010
Into the Cave
Both Pierre Corneille’s L’Illusion comique and Tony Kushner’s Illusion take place inside the cave of the magician Alcandre. Within this cave, however, Alcandre shows three different scenes of “illusion” to Pridamant. Over the centuries, different productions have answered this staging challenge in different ways. Below is Christian Bérard’s rendering of a literal cave (complete with chandeliers) for Louis Jouvet’s 1937 production at the Comédie Française.
For Court Theatre’s Illusion, scenic designer Collette Pollard has rendered the entirety of Court’s auditorium a cavern (our stage is, after all, built mostly below ground level). Here’s a scale model of the set looking down from house right.
Alcandre’s illusions are conjured on top of what we’ve come to call “the slab” in rehearsal. Alcandre and Pridamant orbit around the slab watching visions from the life of Pridamant’s long-lost son. Beneath the slab lie a collection of moving gears and cogs that constitute the mechanical magic of Alcandre’s cave. Here’s a closer angle of the set model:
The slab also has a few tricks up its sleeve that will be revealed during the show. It was inspired by a piece of kinetic sculpture by Arthur Ganson called “Thinking Chair” that Collette encountered in Austria, and pictured below:
Finally, here’s the progress of our carpenters, working against a tight deadline:
THE ILLUSION runs March 11 - April 11 at Court Theatre.
February 18, 2010
A View from the Room
Our first week of rehearsals for The Illusion has come to an end and we’re already headlong into our second. It’s easy at this point to start worrying only about how far we have to go, but it’s worthwhile to see where we’ve been already.
The first rehearsal was fantastic. The rehearsal hall was packed with members of the cast, design team, Court Staff, board members, and students of a remarkably unique class being taught at the University this quarter. (More on that later.)
After introductions and design presentations, like the costume designs Drew posted below, we got right down into reading. Let me say, this cast is fantastic, and the show is complicated and rich. Tony Kushner’s adaptation is an adaptation in the strongest sense. He has taken the outline and some themes from Corneille’s original and has created an entirely new piece informed and inspired by another but possessing a complete life of its own.
Appropriately for any play named The Illusion, the show is full of all sorts of delightful visual tricks that Charlie and our amazing band of designers have cooked up, but what’s consistently exciting about the piece is the extent to which these delights are balanced with a play full of poetry and ideas, rooted in the past, but in dialogue with the present. It’s a real thrill to be a part of this show, keep checking back here for more updates throughout our process!
February 17, 2010
ILLUSION Clothing Design
Here’s a sample of clothing designer Jacqueline Firkins’s drawings for The Illusion. On first rehearsal, Jacqueline spoke about the play’s ambivalent attention to historical accuracy, asserting that the play “doesn’t work” if you try to set it in modern dress. At the same, there’s a danger of being too rigorous about the period. Kushner’s The Illusion is itself playfully anachronistic, and Jacqueline’s costumes draw from the twentieth century as well as the seventeenth.
THE ILLUSION runs March 11 - April 11 at Court Theatre.
Note: Images are the exclusive property of Jacqueline Firkins and may not be reproduced without permission.
February 15, 2010
The Center Did Not Hold
Thanks to all who came out for our closing night special event, The Center Did Not Hold, a celebration of Joan Didion through her early essays. Some of you asked for the names of the essays that were read aloud, so here’s the full list from yesterday afternoon:
Mary Beth Fisher read “On Going Home” from Slouching Toward Bethlehem
Chris Sullivan read “7000 Romaine, Los Angeles 38” from Slouching Toward Bethlehem
Kaitlin Byrd read “At the Dam” from The White Album
Sean Graney read “Comrade Laski, C.P.U.S.A. (M.-L.)” from Slouching Toward Bethlehem
Chris Piatt read “Los Angeles Notebook” from Slouching Toward Bethlehem
Heidi Coleman read “Seacoast of Despair” from Slouching Toward Bethlehem
Paul Durica read “The White Album” from The White Album
Chloe Johnston read “On Self-Respect” from,= Slouching Toward Bethlehem
