The Illusion Court Theatre
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But if Kushner’s The Illusion is basically just a warm-up exercise for his magnum opus, it’s a mighty successful one. Especially as staged by Charles Newell for Court Theatre, Corneille’s Kushnerized tale of paternal crime and punishment comes across as a dark lark.
Naturally, Pridamant is overjoyed to see his son alive. But the images raise some disturbing issues for the old man. For one thing, Clindor still has the “feral stare” that so disturbed his bourgeois father when he was still at home. For another, that feral quality has clearly come to dominate his personality. Always orbiting around love in some form or other, Clindor’s actions are impetuous at best, reprehensible at worst, often dangerous, and always puzzling. Now he’s a canny servant, wooing both an aristocratic beauty and her maid. Now he’s a romantic fool, daring to fight his upper-class rival for a woman. Now he’s a common soldier, doing his pathetic captain out of his heart’s desire. Now he’s a murderer, awaiting execution.
Through 4/11: Wed-Thu 7:30 PM, Fri 8 PM, Sat 3 and 8 PM, Sun 2:30 and 7:30 PM, Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis, 773-753-4472, courttheatre.org, $32-$56.
