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Meaty drama launches season at Ensemble
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Reviewed by: FRAN HELLER Freelance Writer
When was the last time you saw a contemporary play with 12 actors on stage?
A rich smorgasbord of characters is one of the more satisfying aspects of Lillian Groag’s largely autobiographical play “The Magic Fire,” a dense family saga about the illusory nature of memory and the danger of nostalgia.
It’s being presented by Ensemble Theatre through Sept 23.
With a nod to Chekhov, Groag has conjured a meaty, naturalistic drama brimming with wit, humor and thought-provoking intelligence.
The wordy theater piece is not without its flaws, including almost three hours of running time and a cumbersome format. Groag says she has written a novel for the stage, but the labyrinthine structure, in which characters move in and out of the play’s frame, remains problematic.
Nonetheless, the ambitious production under Licia Colombi’s studied direction moves reasonably well. With one exception, the large cast is first-rate, and there are many high points to savor.
“The Magic Fire” premièred at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 1997. It won the Kennedy Center for New American Plays award in 1998 and was presented at the Shaw Festival at Niagara-on-the-Lake in 2006. I saw that presentation and found the intimacy of the Ensemble production more rewarding, with more sharply etched characters.
The story centers on Lise Berg, an American, who grew up in Buenos Aires, Argentina, during the 1950s. Through flashback, Lise recalls her family’s migration, starting with her father Otto, an Austrian Jew who escaped Vienna in 1938 and came to Argentina. There he married a woman of Italian descent, whose family had emigrated from the continent decades earlier. It’s a mix of Jews and Catholics who are so long intermarried that they are no longer of one faith or the other.
The political backdrop of this domestic drama is one of civil strife. Eva Per—n lies dying while a restive military prepares for a coup d’état, hungry workers are striking, people are disappearing, and neighbors and best friends start spying on each other. Lise’s father discovers that he has traded one repressive regime for another.
Lise serves as both narrator and a character in the play, a distracting ploy. The adult Lise’s interaction with her childhood counterpart, and with the other characters from her past, who even answer her back, compounds the confusion and takes the viewer out of the moment.
The play’s title derives from Wagner’s opera “Die Walküre,” and the “ring of magic fire” that protects the tragic heroine from danger. In like manner, Lise’s father escapes through his music, a symbolic ring of fire that protects him and his family from the harsh political realities. Otto learns there is no such escape.
Where the production shines is as an ensemble piece. The family montages are particularly fine, including the large, boisterous dinner gathering in the second act, a celebration of young Lise’s birthday. The festive scene is beautifully staged by director Colombi, in which everyone joins in the singing led by D. Michael Franks as the jovial Italian Gianni “Juan” Guarneri. It’s a lovely touch.
The restrained Viennese side of the family tree is nicely contrasted with the exuberant Italian branch, as they argue the merits of music, religion and politics while trying to explain circumcision to a 7-year-old.
The play gets off to a shaky start with Pandora Robertson as the adult Lise and narrator. Lise’s opening prologue is all but drowned out by the background music, and Robertson tends to swallow her words.
Robert Hawkes triumphs as the opera-loving, bookish Otto Berg, who lives for his music and studiously avoids political involvement.
Carla Petroski is Otto’s wife Amalia, who remains steadfast in her denial of any political danger. “It’s just politics. It has nothing to do with us,” she insists. Amalia keeps closing the drapes of the apartment to shut out the world on the other side of the curtains. It’s most effective.
Sarah DiGirolamo pulls off the precocious brattiness of Young Lise, who provides much of the comic relief. Annie Kitral is the slightly crazed, eccentric spinster Paula Guaneri, who drinks too much, remains obsessed with death, and whose whole life has been a failure of nerve. The unloved Paula locks horns with her senile, 97-year-old mother Maddelena Guarneri, in a show-stealing performance by Lee Mackey.
Sparks fly between Henri Fontannes (Paul Floriano), the Bergs’ next-door neighbor and a general in Per—n’s army, and Alberto Barcos (Peter Ferry), a family friend whose liberal newspaper the fascist government has just shut down.
The lovely-to-look-at Valerie Young percolates as the quick-witted stage actress Elena Guarneri, whose leftist sympathies keep her from getting work. As Clara Stepaneck, Bernice Bolek humorously describes her Viennese side of the family as a mixture of Jews and Catholics who attended synagogue one week and Mass the next.
Martin Cosentino’s setting of the Berg apartment is spare but true to the period, with its vintage radio and record player. Cory Molner’s pinpointed lighting draws a sharp distinction between narration and action. Aimee Kluiber’s costume design illuminates character and time frame. Corby Grubb’s sound effects contrast the ominous droning of police sirens, gunshots and rabble cries with the serenity of the music emanating from the family Victrola.
Artistic director Lucia Colombi’s life-threatening illness this past summer gave me pause to wonder whether Ensemble Theatre would be able to launch their new season. Under Licia’s watch, it has begun on a strong and stirring note. Long may the Colombi sisters reign!
“The Magic Fire” by Ensemble Theatre is at the Brooks Theatre of The Cleveland Play House. 216-321-2930 or www.ensemble-theatre.com.
When was the last time you saw a contemporary play with 12 actors on stage?
A rich smorgasbord of characters is one of the more satisfying aspects of Lillian Groag’s largely autobiographical play “The Magic Fire,” a dense family saga about the illusory nature of memory and the danger of nostalgia.
It’s being presented by Ensemble Theatre through Sept 23.
With a nod to Chekhov, Groag has conjured a meaty, naturalistic drama brimming with wit, humor and thought-provoking intelligence.
The wordy theater piece is not without its flaws, including almost three hours of running time and a cumbersome format. Groag says she has written a novel for the stage, but the labyrinthine structure, in which characters move in and out of the play’s frame, remains problematic.
Nonetheless, the ambitious production under Licia Colombi’s studied direction moves reasonably well. With one exception, the large cast is first-rate, and there are many high points to savor.
“The Magic Fire” premièred at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 1997. It won the Kennedy Center for New American Plays award in 1998 and was presented at the Shaw Festival at Niagara-on-the-Lake in 2006. I saw that presentation and found the intimacy of the Ensemble production more rewarding, with more sharply etched characters.
The story centers on Lise Berg, an American, who grew up in Buenos Aires, Argentina, during the 1950s. Through flashback, Lise recalls her family’s migration, starting with her father Otto, an Austrian Jew who escaped Vienna in 1938 and came to Argentina. There he married a woman of Italian descent, whose family had emigrated from the continent decades earlier. It’s a mix of Jews and Catholics who are so long intermarried that they are no longer of one faith or the other.
The political backdrop of this domestic drama is one of civil strife. Eva Per—n lies dying while a restive military prepares for a coup d’état, hungry workers are striking, people are disappearing, and neighbors and best friends start spying on each other. Lise’s father discovers that he has traded one repressive regime for another.
Lise serves as both narrator and a character in the play, a distracting ploy. The adult Lise’s interaction with her childhood counterpart, and with the other characters from her past, who even answer her back, compounds the confusion and takes the viewer out of the moment.
The play’s title derives from Wagner’s opera “Die Walküre,” and the “ring of magic fire” that protects the tragic heroine from danger. In like manner, Lise’s father escapes through his music, a symbolic ring of fire that protects him and his family from the harsh political realities. Otto learns there is no such escape.
Where the production shines is as an ensemble piece. The family montages are particularly fine, including the large, boisterous dinner gathering in the second act, a celebration of young Lise’s birthday. The festive scene is beautifully staged by director Colombi, in which everyone joins in the singing led by D. Michael Franks as the jovial Italian Gianni “Juan” Guarneri. It’s a lovely touch.
The restrained Viennese side of the family tree is nicely contrasted with the exuberant Italian branch, as they argue the merits of music, religion and politics while trying to explain circumcision to a 7-year-old.
The play gets off to a shaky start with Pandora Robertson as the adult Lise and narrator. Lise’s opening prologue is all but drowned out by the background music, and Robertson tends to swallow her words.
Robert Hawkes triumphs as the opera-loving, bookish Otto Berg, who lives for his music and studiously avoids political involvement.
Carla Petroski is Otto’s wife Amalia, who remains steadfast in her denial of any political danger. “It’s just politics. It has nothing to do with us,” she insists. Amalia keeps closing the drapes of the apartment to shut out the world on the other side of the curtains. It’s most effective.
Sarah DiGirolamo pulls off the precocious brattiness of Young Lise, who provides much of the comic relief. Annie Kitral is the slightly crazed, eccentric spinster Paula Guaneri, who drinks too much, remains obsessed with death, and whose whole life has been a failure of nerve. The unloved Paula locks horns with her senile, 97-year-old mother Maddelena Guarneri, in a show-stealing performance by Lee Mackey.
Sparks fly between Henri Fontannes (Paul Floriano), the Bergs’ next-door neighbor and a general in Per—n’s army, and Alberto Barcos (Peter Ferry), a family friend whose liberal newspaper the fascist government has just shut down.
The lovely-to-look-at Valerie Young percolates as the quick-witted stage actress Elena Guarneri, whose leftist sympathies keep her from getting work. As Clara Stepaneck, Bernice Bolek humorously describes her Viennese side of the family as a mixture of Jews and Catholics who attended synagogue one week and Mass the next.
Martin Cosentino’s setting of the Berg apartment is spare but true to the period, with its vintage radio and record player. Cory Molner’s pinpointed lighting draws a sharp distinction between narration and action. Aimee Kluiber’s costume design illuminates character and time frame. Corby Grubb’s sound effects contrast the ominous droning of police sirens, gunshots and rabble cries with the serenity of the music emanating from the family Victrola.
Artistic director Lucia Colombi’s life-threatening illness this past summer gave me pause to wonder whether Ensemble Theatre would be able to launch their new season. Under Licia’s watch, it has begun on a strong and stirring note. Long may the Colombi sisters reign!
“The Magic Fire” by Ensemble Theatre is at the Brooks Theatre of The Cleveland Play House. 216-321-2930 or www.ensemble-theatre.com.
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