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A sign of a good script is when it is not immediately obvious which character will be the most interesting to play.
“Romeo and Juliet” is easy. Mercutio has the best lines, the best death. The Nurse in drag can be fun too, if you’re willing.
Interesting characters abound in “The Illusion.”
Mother Road Theatre Company’s newest production, “The Illusion” by Tony Kushner, freely adapted from Pierre Coneille’s ‘L’illusion Comique’” is an ode to theatre, fantasy and stories. In short: it is an ode to illusions.
The source material is a French play from the 17th century and Tony Kushner is well-known for his play “Angels in America” which won a Pulitzer for talking about gay Mormons with AIDS.
It’s like “RENT”, but without singing and more awesome.
What we start with in “The Illusion” is a French Ebenezer Scrooge-type wandering to a cave of a magician in search of a supernatural method of hunting down his estranged son.
And what we get is a play.
It’s meta-on-meta-on-meta territory here, right to the end. The punchline is rather self-gratifying, but it justifies with another verbally attractive monologue defending its existence. It leaves some difficult questions for you to scratch over, too, if you delve into the largest and most discomforting of its presented issues.
There is exquisite, vivid word choice, with lines of tapering profundity that strike your ears suddenly with their poetry and leave them ringing. It’s beyond clever and easy to get hung up on the beauty of what’s being said.
As jaw-dropping as the language is, it is specifically the vision and creation of Mother Road that makes this production unapologetically magical.
There is a creepy Victorian motif in props, costumes and the set itself. Part steampunk, part Baroque mad science, there are sheets of corrugated metal and soft layers of dark leather, baleful paper lights and lanterns, depictions of demure astrology, and twisted assorted knick-knacks. It screams effort, love and passion.
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This is the drive and potential of community theatre at its best.
Set Designer Vic Browder, Scenic Artist Staci Robins, Costume Designer Carolyn Hoffman-Schneider and, certainly, director Julia Thudium deserve tremendous praise.
So go see it.
Like, do it.
There’s even a sword-fight. A really slick one at that.
If that’s not enough, the performances themselves are similarly stunning.
Matthew Van Wettering is a perfect everyman’s actor, like a ginger James Stewart. His characters are honest and easy to root for, even in their sinfulness.
Peter Shea Kierst and Nicholas Ballas are stellar framers for the play’s guts and soul, though their parts are unfortunately and relatively small. Ray Orley is luckily given a moment to shine, and his scene is positively chilling. Justino Brokaw plays a series of sheisty shitheads and is joyfully entertaining throughout.
The women are exceptional, with Jessica Quindlen inducing a range of humor, sorrow, and powerful pathos, and Pip Lustgarten’s soliloquies and sense of the comedic being a favorite. Lustgarten’s control of her accent is exceptional, pronouncing the thickness of it for punchlines and elevating it poshly for her character’s social ascension.
The music picks are cute, winking violin covers of pop music, such as the curtain call to “Moondance.” There are peculiar little twinkling MIDIs that invade the dramatic moments over the course of the play, distracting awkwardly with their tinny quality.
The organization that is Mother Road is physically a bit transient, gone from their longtime home of the Filling Station. Now they find themselves at the MTS Center for Theater Black Box, which is nestled oddly near the southwest corner of the fair grounds by San Pedro and Central. And with the State Fair currently going on, the play’s actions is occasionally peppered by the screaming roller coasters just beyond the walls.
So go see it.
They even sell beer. Really.
Go see it.
Maybe more than once.
Mother Road Theatre Company Presents
The Illusion
Directed by Julia Thudium
MTS Center for Theater Black Box
6320 Domingo Road NE, Ste. B
Thursdays, Fridays at 8:00 p.m., Saturdays, 6:00 p.m. Sundays at 2 p.m.
Runs through Sept. 26
$24 general, $18 seniors & students, Thursdays all tickets $15
Contact 505-243-0596 for info/reservations or reservations@motherroad.org.
