Thursday, October 22, 1998
Revival of Shakespeare plays with supernatural
THEATRE: Bewitching hocus pocus, music put new spin on classic
plays
By Erin Beatty
Daily Bruin Contributor
When Shakespeare conceived of his timeless masterpieces, it is
doubtful he imagined witches climbing over audience members, card
tricks, a "spirit guide" or a Vaudevillesque drama comprised of as
many plays as there are ingredients in the witches’ brew in
"Macbeth."
In his new play "Hauntings  A Shakespearean Seance," Ben
Donenberg, producing artistic director and founder of Shakespeare
Festival/L.A., has concocted just that: a wild mixture of
Shakespeare’s supernatural, conjured from "Macbeth," "Hamlet,"
"Richard III" and other plays.
Hoping to be Los Angeles’ newest Halloween tradition,
"Hauntings" takes advantage of this spooky time of year, playing
off the intensified receptiveness to the supernatural that
Halloween cultivates. The show takes place at West Hollywood’s
Pacific Design Center and will run through Oct. 31, culminating in
a midnight "Seance" on Halloween night.
After doing the summer festival for 15 years, Shakespeare
Festival/L.A. has expanded to the fall.
"Our objective is really to celebrate all of the supernatural
elements of Shakespeare’s plays with magic, ghosts, witches and
music," says Donenberg.
Donenberg explains that the play is similar to a "Shakespeare
Vaudeville," using magic and music to tie together Shakespeare’s
various scenes.
"Hauntings  A Shakespearean Seance" summons the "spook
show," a favorite entertainment of the 1940s and ’50s that grew out
of vaudeville. The "spook show" combined Hollywood films with
magical illusions and live performance.
Eugene Burger, the show’s magician and "spirit guide," received
recognition as the 1998 "International Close-Up Magician" and has
published 18 successful magic books. Using his abilities, Burger
enters between the various scenes performing magic tricks and
addressing the universal themes of Shakespeare.
Donenberg explains that Burger’s Magic is used in the show to
"punctuate the Shakespeare scenes, tie them together and illuminate
the universal theme of the supernatural in life, the world and
history."
The program strives to make Shakespeare more accessible to the
modern population. Burger says that in Shakespeare, the audience
encounters a "glass floor" allowing them to see the spectacle of
the play, but prevented by the length and language to understand
it.
He hopes that children who come to see the show will understand
the scenes and be further inspired by the spectacle to read the
literature on their own.
"I’m trying to tie it all together, to set the scenes up to make
them more comprehensible when they happen," Burger says.
Burger enjoys the change from the traditional magic show, seeing
it as an opportunity to take magic to an astute level.
"I think magic is much deeper than the average magic show would
let us to believe," he says.
He explains that the magic and text compliment one another.
While the illusions assist the audience in understanding the deeper
meaning in Shakespeare, the plays allow the audience to explore the
abstract significance that exists within the magic tricks.
Though the concept of "Shakespearean Vaudeville" seems new, Tom
O’Horgan, the show’s director, explains that altering the style of
Shakespeare performance has been done for many centuries. Adding
music, altering scenes and other changes attempting to enhance
understanding have become commonplace when working with the
expansive language and themes of Shakespeare.
O’Horgan who directed a variety of Broadway and off-Broadway
productions including "Hair," "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Inner
City" was fascinated with Donenberg’s idea. He explains that
working with the Vaudeville setting was quite difficult because of
the necessity to coherently mesh multiple ideas.
"I personally have done a lot of weird plays," he says,
laughing. "And I think this might be very well the strangest of
them all."
"Hauntings" incorporates music, chanting, lighting, magic,
acting and Shakespeare into an event quite different from any
other. The play addresses the universal themes and emotions of
Shakespeare, recalling personal events in his life, while asking
the audience to relate the plays to occurrences in their own
lives.
"The goal really is to create wonder and have people be inspired
to think about things on a more elevated level rather than on an
everyday mundane level." Donenberg says.
"We want to elevate their consciousness and get them wondering
about themselves in relationship to each other, the community and
the world."
THEATER: "Hauntings  A Shakespearean Seance" runs through
Oct. 31 at West Hollywood’s Pacific Design Center. Tickets are
$16.50-$25. For more information call (213) 489-4127.
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