An Inexplicit Truth

'Nova masters a witty Tony Kushner adaptation.

by Mark Cofta

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I'd love to discuss what Pierre Corneille says in The Illusion, "freely adapted" by Tony Kushner (Angels in America), but the play's much more fun when its fantastical "truth" isn't revealed. Thank me after you see it — and you should see it.

The 1636 play, by the forerunner of Racine and Molière most famous for El Cid, becomes a comic adventure with a dark twist in Kushner's clear, witty 1988 version, strengthened by director Harriet Power's superb Villanova Theatre production.

Lawyer Pridamant (James F. Schlatter) seeks assistance from sorcerer Alcandre (Paul Guerin) in finding his son, who fled his dominance 15 years ago. "Man has a right to expect coherence," Pridamant insists, but Alcandre's cave (a misty, rocky, glistening chamber by Frank McCullough, evocatively lit by Jerold Forsyth) offers few answers at first.

Alcandre conjures three versions of the son's fate. In each, Carl C. Granieri plays the young man and Rachel Anne Stephan the woman he pursues, but Kristen O'Rourke and Charles B. Illingworth IV complicate each tale. All balance slapstick shenanigans (clever sword fights by Samantha Bellomo) with poetic protestations of love: Granieri's characters are smart and resourceful, Stephan's elegant and passionate, O'Rourke's sly and seductive, and Illingworth's earnest and proud.

All three stories concern love "and the inevitable blossoming of its opposites," all the destructive emotions that thwarted love inspires.

They entertain — particularly when Luke Moyer's Matamore, a self-absorbed lunatic, also vies for Stephan — but we notice how Alcandre and servant (Jeffrey S. Paden) conjure events, and their confounding effect on Pridamant. "All that pain," the sorcerer presents the granite-hearted lawyer, "and thwarted hope, rejected love, grief, disappointment, joy."

Elegantly costumed in 17th-century finery by Charlotte Cloe Fox Wind, the cast masters Kushner's rich language with insight and sincerity. "Love," Alcandre explains, "is a sea of desire stretched between shores — only the shores are real, but how much more compelling is the sea." These words would fall flat if not supported by the grandly theatrical, but still genuine, performances that reveal their truth — and much more that I daren't share.

(m_cofta@citypaper.net)

The Illusion Through April 27, Villanova Theatre, Vasey Hall, 800 Lancaster Ave., Villanova, 610-519-7474, theatre.villanova.edu