An illusion is, according to Merriam Webster, “the state or face of being intellectually deceived or misled” and theater is all about illusions, making you believe that the lives played out on stage are just as real and important as anything you experience in the play of your own reality.

Pierre Corneille’s play translated and adapted by Tony Kushner as “The Illusion” was originally called “L’Illusion Comique.” His 1636 play is a comedy and we enter the concrete fortress of A Noise Within comforted that we are going to see a production that will at the very least give us a few chuckles, but Kushner conspires with Corneille to give us something deeper and a guffaw or two.

The plot is simple enough. A father , Pridamant (Nick Ullett), who feared the strange passionate look in his son’s eyes, many years earlier drove his son out. Now, feeling the cold fingers of his own mortality, the old man has journey alone from Avignon to the remote cave of a magician, Alcandre (Deborah Strang).

Under the direction of Casey Stangl, Strang’s Alcandre is not particularly menacing, even in a Snidely Whiplash sort of way. Instead, she seems like one of those people who has chosen to drop out of society in some place like Ojai or Santa Cruz. Perhaps she has a way of reading people like an old sideshow fortune teller.

With her servant Amanuensis (Jeff Doba), who might or might not be deaf and dumb, Alcandre casts a spell and illusions appear. We meet the son first as Calisto (Graham Hamilton, below right with Freddy Douglas on the left) who is filled with the purple prose of young and foolish love. The object of his ardor, Melibea (Devon Sorvari, on the left below) is from a wealthy family, but having been disowned Calisto has only himself to offer. Their love is fostered by a crafty servant, Elicia (Abby Craden at her crafty best, on the right below).

 

A few years later, the pair are now called Clindor (Hamilton) and Isabelle (Sorvari). Clindor is the servant of a nobleman who also covets and courts Isabelle, while bedding Isabelle’s maid Lyse (Craden). Unlike the immature puppy love of Calisto, Clindor is more pragmatic; he wants beauty and money for he knows he need one to live and the other is a convenience.

Clindor is imprisoned after killing the nobleman Adraste (Freddy Douglas), but Lyse helps his escape after extracting a promise from Isabelle that the maid will be rewarded with the full amount of Isabelle’s fortune. Isabelle believes that Clindor loves her solely for herself and not for her wealth. Yet the audience knows that her money is part of her attraction.

Now called Theogenes (Hamilton), the son is married to the lady Hippolyta (Sorvari), but he seems to be experiencing the seven-year-itch; he is having an affair with is lord, the prince’s lady. This ultimately leads to tragedy.

Hamilton is dashing and even a bit of a cad in the right amounts for each facet maturing love. Sorvari is competent enough as these stock female characters, but the real center of this production in Craden’s scheming, world-wise servant.

“The Illusion” is about the art of love and the illusions created by love and our baser instincts. We see both the illusions built by romantic love in different stages of maturity, but also those built between fathers and sons. Has Pridamant come too late? Or perhaps does one every really care enough until it is too late?

The costume designs by Julie Keen help richly illustrate the three different aspects of romantic love while Keith Mitchell’s set design suggests remoteness and yet also  the possibility of Alcandre’s illusions being something like holograms, but perhaps that’s my own mind considering Star Trek or Disneyland.

This is not a bright and cheery Disneyland-like comedy, but if there is a message it is subtle and less socio-political than Kushner’s own plays. This illusion is worthy deceiving. Don’t let this be one of your lost opportunities.

All photos courtesy of A Noise Within

“The Illusion” continues until 19 May at A Noise Within, 3352 E Foothill Blvd.,    Pasadena, CA 91107. Call  626.356.3100 or visit ANoiseWithin.org.