THE SPIRIT PLAY at DCA THEATER

Review by: Sergei Telis
Press Notes and Commentary by: Leonard Mogul

Emily Schwartz, playwright
Jimmy McDermott, director
October 5 – November 6, 2011
DCA Theatre, 66 E. Randolph Street
DCATHEATER.org STRANGETREE.org

A new theater play by emerging Chicago playwright Emily Schwartz and directed by Jimmy McDermott has premiered, performed by The Strange Tree Group at DCA Theater’s Storefront Theater, 66 E. Randolph St., in the heart of Chicago’s downtown theater district, through November 6, 2011. The play itself is also set in Chicago - but at the end of the IX century. “The Strange Tree Group brings Chicago's ghosts to life this Halloween season with The Spirit Play”, reads the presentation. Indeed, the ghostly characters will appear in the show, and their play will help the viewer access one’s own connection to the past and its fleeting sense of the unreal. The play starts as a flat comedy unfolding between members of the upper-crust Chicago society of the late IX century, in turn played by a small group of “spiritual” tricksters. But where there are tricksters, there will be surprises for everyone involved. The play draws on the background of the modern culture, where an inquisitive interest for tricksters was revived by Carl Jung, who saw the trickster as one of the archetypes, prevalent both in mythological cultures and in the “collective unconscious”. A trickster, or a clown, is a often a “wise fool” who creatively trespasses the social and emotional boundaries, and evokes experience of surprise in his subjects. The roles are at times reversed, and then surprised is the trickster…

As The Spirit Play unfolds, we discover that the most skeptical characters turned out to be skeptical-in-defense, and actually, the most longing for and susceptible to new experiences. “I want to believe”, as X-Files’ Agent Mulder used to say in all paradoxical seriousness.

Many parts of the story are said to be taken from 'true' tales found in antique spiritualist magazines of the late IX century. The show flows easily and effortlessly, uplifted by the distinct and emotionally well-balanced music of Michael Huey, that is played live on piano, seen through the glass door, as though yet in a different space. The set design and the structure of the show are fairly down-to-earth and realistic, which in turn might be somewhat strange, as one could expect some more theatrical ways or “tricks” that could be in place to illuminate the topic. The characters are very dynamic, each contributing to the wholeness of the puzzle.
In recent times, Strange Tree Group won three Non-Equity Jeff Awards - for Best Ensemble (Shakespeare's King Phycus) Best New Work (The Three Faces of Doctor Crippen, Emily Schwartz) and Best Director (The Three Faces of Doctor Crippen, Jimmy McDermott) at the Joseph Jefferson Awards. Doctor Crippen was named as The Best of the Season by the Chicago Tribune.
--S.T.

PRESS NOTES AND COMMENTARY:

The play is based on “true” tales found in antique spiritualist magazines written between 1850 and 1900. The play is a dramatization of those stories. It’s a story about people trying to reach out to their loved ones and in their desperation become an easy prey for swindlers and charlatans looking to make an easy buck. In my opinion, this play is not necessarily about how the victims fell prey to swindlers. But, rather why a well-educated person, from an upper-class world, would believe in mysticism and trickery as portrayed in this play. The answer lies in a simple fact that in desperation a human being becomes gullible to deception and trickery. Just as in this play a group of believers in a futile effort seek out to connect with a departed loved one via use of a medium.

The press notes state:
“Séances, spirit mediums, and supernatural occurrences took Victorian-era America by storm, as otherwise sensible people grasped at any means to reach out to their loved-ones on the other side. In the insular, upper-class world of 1870s Chicago, three scheming charlatans prey on the rich with elaborate tricks and magic during well-rehearsed séances. But when young Jane, the so-called medium, begins to receive unexpected communications from the dead, her world takes a stunning turn.”
Playwright Emily Schwartz aptly chose a cast of some of the hardest working actors in the business that not only helped to make the story line flow, but also became submerses in it. The cast in order of appearance: the hosting mother Mrs. Redspell ( Kay Schmitt) and her eccentric son Hubert Redspell (Scott Cupper). The Doctor Buchard (Michael Thomas Downey) and his wife (Jenifer Henry), Miss Neal (Carolyn Klein) and Miss Emery (Elizabeth Bagby) make up the participants in the spiritual circle moderated by Mr. Gerard (Matt Holzfeind). Jane Foust (Kate Nawrocki), the medium with assistance of her unseen sister Ruth (Delia Baseman) and finally, the late Mr. Tenneant (Bob Kruse).

An enjoyable Victorian mystery with some of the best acting I’ve seen in a long time.

--L.M.