By Venus Zarris

A few weeks ago I was talking to a dear friend who shared with me an amazing Internet find, something that almost caused his brain to explode. It is a video entitled Visualizing Up To Ten Dimensions wherein it does just that. Through a very simplified animation it describes the ten dimensions of existence, in sort of a ‘Quantum String Theory: 101’ fashion.

The first few dimensions are easily accessible, as they can be witnessed within our perceivable reality. Even in our finite existence we can grasp at least some notion of the application of infinity. As you move into higher dimensions this notion of infinity folds back onto itself to encompass a limitless number of simultaneously existing dimensions where ANYTHING is possible. Our laws of nature and physics are irrelevant. The only constant is energy and it can manifest in ways that are beyond our grasp.

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this train of thought is that it is not a byproduct of an LSD trip or an epic fast causing the brain to hallucinate, but rather these fantastical concepts are a direct deduction of quantum mathematical calculation; not science fiction, not artistic fantasy but rather mathematical fact.

And here is where the extraordinary brilliance of Trap Door Theatre’s production of 12 Ophelias: A Play With Broken Songs converges on the extraordinary brilliance of higher math. 12 Ophelias imagines another possibility of a character created by Shakespeare for his play Hamlet, not just a different outcome of a set of prescribed circumstances, but an altogether different suspension of reality inhabited by something familiar. The known transcends into the unknown, retaining the recognizable traces of compelling emotion that manifest in one reality and then crossing them over into an absurd parallel option where all bets of linear thought, life and death and structured environmental physicality are off. Playwright Caridad Svich imagines an alternative universe. Trap Door physically manifests it in this universe, and locks it in their black box.

Now it can be said that every play is an alternative universe as it is not a corporal but rather an imagined reality, but Svich goes beyond the ‘girl meets boy, boy breaks her heart, girl ends it all’ imagination of Hamlet. (please forgive that gross oversimplification) She does not simply speculate an alternative ending. She envisions a purgatorial revisiting of the depths of pain and heights of passion. She suspends the cause and accelerates the effect. And she weaves this parallel world with lovely lyricism that is both aesthetically beguiling and emotionally ravaging.

Director Kate Hendrickson is the artistic Stephen Hawkins that formulates Svich’s emotionally quantum ethereal calculations to come up with a vivid three-dimensional manifestation of this surreal construct. Hendrickson makes it breathtakingly tangible by compiling brilliant actors and artists that make the absurd artistic equation a compelling and evocative reality.

As is the way at Trap Door, the reality begins before the first lines of the script are uttered. Related minutia bleeds into the story and this time out it is realized with divine music that sets a hauntingly lovely atmosphere. Musical Director Nicholas Tonozzi brilliantly fashions a heavenly five-piece bluegrass ensemble of lilting musical Ophelias. You can close your eyes and listen to the melancholy place where you are headed as the music floats over the pre-show conversation like the sweet smell of fragrant flowers on a summer breeze.

This powerfully beautiful sensation is followed by a surreal suspension of the exquisite corpses laid waste in Shakespeare’s original story. Ophelia, Hamlet, Gertrude, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (or R and G as imagined here) interact in potent emotional outbursts, delicate exchanges of longing, brutal and tender sexuality as well as silly frivolity that deconstructs what lies beneath the expository construct of Shakespeare’s play. Playwright Caridad Svich casts out the limitation of conclusion and inhabits the world of consequence.

Without a gifted ensemble this could easily be construed as random ravings but Director Hendrickson creates a collaboration of excellence. Jen Ellison, as R, and Casey Chapman, as G, standout as a mesmerizing makeshift chorus, observing and then interacting with Ophelia’s affecting journey. Their fascinating performances display rare and remarkable instinct and intelligence. They are the somber spectators of this tragedy as well as its hysterical comic camp relief. Kevin Lucero Less is commanding as Rude Boy. He fluctuates effortlessly and powerfully between menace, vulnerability, sensuality and humor, creating the critical conflict in Ophelia’s heart to staggering and spellbinding effect.

Fight Choreographer Mathias Malof adds notable strength to the production, as the physical altercations are frantically frightening and exactingly executed.

Trap Door Theatre consistently creates worlds that exist outside of the matrix of conventional and practical thought but still manage to evoke emotional and visceral reactions that profoundly connect to our human experience, thereby challenging the boundaries of perceived impossibility. 12 Ophelias: A Play With Broken Songs is one such extraordinary paradigm shift that should not be missed.

3 ½ STARS

(“12 Ophelias: A Play With Broken Songs” runs through October 31 at Trap Door Theatre, 1655 W. Cortland Ave. 773-384-0494.)

Trap Door Theatre | Chicago, IL

12 Ophelias: A Play With Broken Songs production photos by Michal Janicki

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One Response to “12 Ophelias: A Play With Broken Songs - REVIEW”

  1. 12:14 pm, 2 October, 2009 р.
    Heather says:

    Great review! Great production!! As a long time lover of all the Shakespeare classics, it’s so wonderful to attend productions such as this which appropriate and expand on the original.

    The idea of different dimensions hit me hard in this review, because I think that’s exactly what Caridad Svich has accomplished. Hamlet, alive and well; angry as all hell. Most of the characters are back, and they are looking for answers.

    Superb direction by Kate Hendrickson, and acting by the intoxicatingly volcanic Kevin Lucero Less. He drips sex and is very much due the new title as Rude Boy. R and G, played by Jen Ellison and Casey Chapman, are a great comic relief, though they still ring true as cloaked villians. Joslyn Jones as Gertrude, was strong and comic, with her great dry humor.

    The dance elements by Camille Kuthrell were also amazing, as were the stage fights by Mathias Maloff.

    You don’t have to be a lover of the classics to enjoy this Trap Door production, I think it speaks very strongly for itself.

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