Open Rehearsal: The Court Theatre Blog
The Illusion
March 9, 2010
Winsor McCay and Georges Méliès
Spending a few hours in tech for The Illusion this weekend, contemplating the design of the production (which is really beautiful and mysterious), the play started evoking images to me from Little Nemo in Slumberland (by comic strip artist Winsor McCay) and The Trip to the Moon (by filmmaker Georges Méliès)
I wish I could explain more about what I mean by these images, but I’d have to spoil the play. Suffice to say that there’s a dreamlike quality to some of this production that I’ve never quite seen in theater before.
March 3, 2010
Cave of Illusions #2
To supplement Benno’s post on Plato’s cave, here are some illustrations I found that depict the allegory:
March 2, 2010
Cave of Illusions
Like the pictures Drew posted below show, The Illusion takes place in a Magician’s cave. In the center of the cave on a great slab, the Magician Alcandre conjures a representation of life for his customer Pridamant. It’s been difficult when working on this play not to think of one of the most famous caves in the history of Philosophy: Plato’s Allegory of the cave from The Republic. In this Plato equates the difference between the truth and what we perceive, with a person chained in a cave able only to see shadows on a wall. Without giving too much away, it’s certain that the images that Alcandre creates in his cave are not the truth - they are a representation. Still, they have much to teach Pridamant as you can see when we open. And opening is scarily close!
Check out the Allegory of the Cave in Allan Bloom’s translation below, and be sure to check back for more updates as we go into Technical rehearsals this weekend!
March 1, 2010
Mysterium Mechanicum
T minus 3 days until the actors enter the space, the set for The Illusion is starting to see some color and finish. At this point any wide-angle photographs would spoil your experience of the show, but here are some scenes from around the sidelines:
An array of lanterns congregates in the lobby, waiting to be hung.
The iconic table and chair from The Year of Magical Thinking still sits in the back of the house, now demoted to a work bench for our electricians.
Often spotting in the theater during construction time: the shop gnome.
