Preview:
How to Be Sawed in Half
Chicago Sun-Times, August 25, 2000
Joanna Settle has a rented bunny living behind her couch.
The furry creature resides there when it’s not “acting” in
the director’s latest production, the world premiere
of Hurt McDermott’s “How to Be Sawed in Half.”
“It’s a rented stunt bunny,” Settle said
with a laugh. “I’ve named it Claude for the duration
of the show.”
Don’t worry, the bunny doesn’t get sawed in
half. But it is the main ingredient in that oldest of magic
tricks.
Yes, Claude is pulled out of a hat in McDermott’s
magic-laced play that, with inspiration from Shakespeare’s
The Tempest, revolves around the relationship of a magician,
Prospero (George A. Wilson), and his assistant, Calibana
(Rachel Sledd), who rebels and tries to take over the show.
Settle, artistic director of Thirteenth Tribe, has become
known as a serious proponent of site-specific theatre. She
set the multimedia work Bombs in the Ladies Room in the claustrophobic
basement of Wicker Park’s Yello Gallery and the critically
acclaimed Blood Line: The Oedipus/Antigone Story in the vast,
garage-like environs of the Viaduct. And while How to Be
Sawed in Half will occupy the stage at the more thespian-friendly
Athenaeum Theatre, Settle claims it, too, as a site-specific
work.
“I staged this very small play in a large, older theatre
because I wanted to capture a faded sense grandeur,” Settle
explained. “I wanted to set this fading, old-school
traveling magic act inside the grand stage of the traditions
of vaudeville. And the Athenaeum was the perfect place to
do this.”
This is a play about loneliness, and I want the audience
to feel a palpable loneliness in the room. This is all about
giving the audience space to feel the story and reflect on
it.”
Inside the giant frame of the Athenaeum’s traditional
proscenium stage, Settle and her collaborators will explore
the beauty and tenderness of comedy, magic and failure. “How
to Be Sawed in Half” is a work about loser that takes
the time to consider why we exist.
- Mary Houlihan -
“This is a really crummy magic act,” Settle
says. “The characters are losers.”
Because Thirteenth Tribe productions typically attract a
group that is loyal to Settle’s singular brand of work
but small in number, the odds seem to be in favor of Settle
gaining her wish of seeing lots of empty seats in the Athenaeum.
But should a slew of paying people wrongly think that “How
to Be Sawed in Half” will explain the secrets of Penn
and Teller, Copperfield et al., you can bet that they will
be allowed through the door.
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