Night of the Magician
Written and Directed by Jack Lawrence Mayer
and David Milton Brent
at Chopin Theatre, 1543 W. Division (map)
thru Feb 24 | tickets: $15 | more info
Check for half-price tickets
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Original mulitimedia performance creates
deliciously immersive experience
Screen Door Productions presents
Night of the Magician
Review by Joy Campbell
Screen Door describes its Live Movies as “[using…] a combination of video, theater, and music performance to deconstruct movies into their composite visual and aural parts.” This may sound deceptively like an idea spawned from a drunken party conversation between earnest film students and theater majors, but the result is actually a very
Audience members enter a basement black-box space festooned with odd artifacts and props: a melancholy portrait, a hanging window sash, a dollhouse, a section of train track. The seating area faces a large movie screen that reaches from floor to ceiling. From there, we experience a film, plus so much more.
First, the film, “The Night of the Magician.” An independent work, the film follows the efforts of Matilda (Ellie Reed) as she travels to a formerly prosperous industrial town, now almost completely abandoned, in search of her disappeared brother, Conrad (Daniel Desmarais). His last known plans, to visit the town, are delivered via a voice-over that sounds like an homage to Lemony Snicket. Once at the town, Ellie encounters all kinds of characters that range from mildly eccentric to downright creepy, from Isabelle Lewis (Martine Moore), the granddaughter of the town’s founder, to her estranged charismatic brother, Leo (Morgan Maher), to a blind, TV-collecting Healer (Gina Marie Hernandez), who lives alone in the woods. Ellie’s quest reveals a town in the midst of conflict, rooted in a history of the violent, gothic, supernatural, and grotesque. Overarching is a theme of destructive industrialism vs. harmony with Nature.
David Milton Brent’s and Jack Lawrence Mayer’s respective filmmaking and writing experience show in the film’s high production values. The cinematography is excellent, as is the use of camera effects to convey an eerie foreboding. The acting is terrific, with a special shout-out to Ellie Reed, who spends much of the film mute while managing to convey nuanced meaning and expression. On its own it makes for good entertainment; when augmented by Screen Door’s multimedia approach, the film positively vibrates, immersing us in the experience. A live band plays an amazing original soundtrack from the corner of the room; actors in stylized masks at times walk across the viewing area to echo the onscreen action; similarly, shadow puppets underscore the film’s magical realism, while actors join the performance area to expand settings of the film (becoming patrons around us, for instance, when Matilda is a bar). Sound and light effects likewise amplify the experience.
That all of this can go on during a film and add to its power rather than distract from the action is a testimony to the talent with which the film and offscreen action were designed together. This isn’t some cheesy live-action gimmickry; it’s truly an art form whose whole is more than the sum of its parts. Night of the Magician makes for a great evening out.
Rating: ★★★
Night of the Magician continues through February 24th at Chopin Theatre, 1543 W. Division (map), with performances Thursday-Saturday at 9pm, Sunday 3pm. Tickets are $15, and are available by phone (773-278-1500) or online through BrownPaperTickets.com (check for half-price tickets at Goldstar.com). More information at MoviesAreBetterLive.com. (Running time: 2 hours, no intermission)
artists
cast
Ellie Reed (Matilda), Morgan Maher (Leo), Martine Moore (Isabelle Lewis), Havalah Grace Backus (Bureaucrat/Beast), Andy Cameron (Monkfish), Chris Matthews (Seymour Lewis), Daniel Desmarais (Conrad), Sean Bolger (Schmitty), Irene Marquette (Frankie), Gigi Fenlon (Mrs. Winter), Steve Lund (Frederich), Gina Marie Hernandez (Healer)
band
Jordan Stacey, Julian Stacey, Jenn Romero
behind the scenes
Jack Lawrence Mayer, David Milton Brent (co-directors); Jenn Romero (music direction/scoring); Amber Wright (stage manager); Kevin Endres, Hannah Dawe (assistant directors); Jacob Hurwitz-Goodman (art direction); Kate Cornelius-Schecter (production manager); Dav Yendler (original artwork); John Paul Thompson (sound designer); John Dickson (props); Jennifer Sale (producer); Mike Oleon (puppets); Maggie O’Keefe (puppet assistant); Jacob Watson (set); Aaron Cannon (lights); Molly FitzMaurice (costume, props, makeup); Emma Alamo (technical director); Kylie Stack (marketing director)
13-0211
