Irish Times critics review The Illusion at the Project Cube and Teatro Delusio at An Grianan in Letterkenny

The Illusion

Project Cube

Tony Kushner's adaptation of the comedy L'Illusion Comique, written in 1636 by the French dramatist Pierre Corneille, is expansive and freewheeling, loosening the taut verse of neoclassicism into a cheekily colloquial style, shot through with a heady dose of contextual irony; if there's a finer way for a lovestruck suitor to greet his lady's maid than "Oh, dread Medusa of the linen closets!", I've yet to hear it. In a spirited interpretation, the young Dublin company Randolf SD pulls off this lightness of touch with ease and wit, while handling with equal sensitivity the poignant mood - a father's emotion for the son he has long since banished - which is at the play's core.

The father, ghoulishly evoked by a white-faced, hollow-eyed Will O'Connell, has come to the cave of the Magician (Kate Nic Chonaonaigh), asking to know something of how his son's life has gone. Warning him that he must not traverse the space between reality and illusion, she conjures up a series of scenes involving the son (Philip McMahon) and the high-born lady he is busily seducing (Natalie Radmall-Quirke) along with her feisty maid and the alternative suitors he must compete with. It's in these set-pieces (related, though the characters' names change in each one) that the actors, under the direction of Wayne Jordan, exhibit the infectious energy and talent for comic timing which makes much of this production such a pleasure to witness; snappy and sardonic, they work wonders with the limited space of the Cube, conjuring a sort of enchantment even on the crude wooden platform of their interaction.

With the magician acting as script editor, the actors clad half in casual clothes and half in costume, and the set looking deliberately unfinished, the metaphor of theatricality is vivid throughout; so when it is rendered explicit near the close of the play, there is a sense of surfeit. This much may be Kushner's doing, but it is there, too, in the heavily wrought scenes in which McMahon and Radmall-Quirke thrash an agonising path through the maze of distrust and betrayal into which their love has led them. Though the ease may dwindle, however, the wonderful energy of Jordan's cast sustains itself over the considerable length of Kushner's play.

Belinda McKeon

Teatro Delusio

An Grianan, Letterkenny

The audience can be forgiven for thinking that the play hasn't yet started when they see props being adjusted on stage. The scene is set backstage in a theatre. Three stage technicians open the door to the many different dimensions of the human condition.

Floz Productions kicked off the Donegal Earagail Arts Festival with a mesmerising Irish premiere of Teatro Delusio. Three German actors play out 29 characters in a wordless world of masked emotions. With 75 costume changes between them, the audience are pulled between two dramas. One front stage the other backstage.

The story unfolds; the audience is invited to participate in the three technicians' hopes and dreams, as they live and work in the shadow of an egotistical director and a cast of glamorous stars. All that separates each world is a thin curtain and public applause. Now it is the technicians' turn to move from the darkness into the limelight and as they struggle to keep control of the show, we see how their fantasies emerge and collide.

Enter the orchestra, the comedy, and the dreams. Heart-wrenching operatic arias dictate the mood of the play, as the audience are carried deeper into their own imagination. Hilarious and yet tragic, different realities develop through fight scenes, love triangles, deadly intrigues, divas and dance.

Inspired in part, by the spirit of Commedia Del Arte, the cast prove themselves masters of this unique form. Few companies use mask and mime in such a vivid and innovative way as this.

Under the direction of Michael Vogel, actors Paco Gonzalez, Bjorn Leese and Hajo Schuler leave the audience entranced. This is proved by the standing ovation at the end of the performance.

The elaborate costumes, the combination of music, mask and cartoon-like clowning, make Teatro Delusio a breath of fresh air. Tonight marks its last performance in Ireland; if possible go and see it.

Kate Chambré