*Just in time for the announced EXTENSION of Redmoon Theater’s brilliant The Cabinet and just in case you didn’t hear us the first time, here’s a second review of this beguiling hit!*
The Cabinet EXTENDED through April 25!
By J. Scott Hill
Redmoon Theater is never a mere puppet show, not even a mad puppet show in an asylum where the doctor is more insane than is the patient (although the story of The Cabinet is just that, with the mad doctor being the puppet master pulling the mental strings of his pathetic patient Cesare). Everyone has seen children play, with dolls and action figures, with the complete abandon of unfettered imagination. What if adults did that together? What if those adults were Tim Burton, Edward Gorey, Dr. Seuss, Terry Gilliam, and Harlan Ellison? If you could watch how those twisted geniuses play together with their dolls and action figures, you might see something like a show by Redmoon Theater. There is nothing closer in Chicago theatre to a sure bet than a Redmoon production, particularly if you have a taste for the macabre.
If you do have a taste for the macabre, or took Film Appreciation in college, you are already familiar with the 1919 German Expressionist masterpiece The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, from which Redmoon’s The Cabinet was adapted. When I was at college, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari opened my eyes to radically new, yet already very old, ways to tell a story; at Redmoon Central, The Cabinet blew my mind with radically new, yet already very old, ways to tell a story.
The adaptation is by Mickle Maher, co-founder of Theatre Oobleck, author of the breathtaking An Apology For the Course and Outcome of Certain Events Delivered by Doctor John Faustus on This His Final Evening and three or four other things that should have won Pulitzer Prizes. Maher’s journeys through the existential dilemma and the absurdity of this mortal life are dense and accessible jewels that never leave your mind once you have either seen them produced or read them. True to form, Maher’s re-imagination of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari gives bones and sinew to such nebulous concepts as consciousness, volition, and ennui. He surpasses the already jaw-dropping source material to create a narrative that is at once enthralling and suffocating, a literary erotic-asphyxiation.
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This production also incorporates elements of German Expressionism’s love child film noir, most notably the presence of a voiced-over narrator. Colm O’Reilly provides the voice of Cesare, the somnambulist who recounts these events. O’Reilly, known for so brilliantly enriching the silences onstage, is every bit as brilliant with this seemingly unending flow of words. He would have been a staple of the great theatre-of-the-mind radio shows like Inner Sanctum and Suspense. Had I ever dared to shut my eyes, Colm O’Reilly would have by himself carried me away to Cesare’s nightmare of a life.
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The spectacle of Redmoon’s The Cabinet is overwhelming. Margaret Goddard’s Set Design is as ingenious as it is visually complex. The stage is a giant chifforobe, the tallest of tallboys, with doors and drawers that open onto various eerily stylized sets. Lisa Barcy and Scott Pondrom’s puppets are large, daunting figures similar to the Japanese bunkaru style. Each puppet may be operated by several puppeteers simultaneously in a manner that somewhat resembles a live-action version of stop-motion animation. The oft-visible puppeteers — Missy Davis, Sam Deutsch, Sarah Ely, Matt Rudy, and Dustin Valenta — are uniformly painted and dressed in beige and gray, wearing monocles, looking like preternatural tinkers or pallid steampunk gods. Portions of The Cabinet in which the narrative is somewhat condensed are conveyed through the use of intricate pop-up books created by Laura Miracle and Laura Annis. Mikhail Fiksel’s Sound Design and Mark Messing’s original score create a ghastly undercurrent for the entire production.
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Originally conceived and directed by Artistic Director Frank Maugeri in 2005, Redmoon Theater’s current remount of The Cabinet is a resounding success for Director Vanessa Stalling (one of the puppeteers from the original production). Stalling has taken the infinitely intricate individual elements of this production — script, set, puppets, and in-scene puppeteers – and synthesized a seamless, flawless theatrical event of unflinching intimacy and unforgettable spectacle.
Thankfully, Redmoon Theater extended the run of The Cabinet through April 4. Now, Redmoon has again extended the run, through April 25. GO SEE THIS SHOW. If Redmoon Theater triples the ticket prices, GO SEE THIS SHOW. You will never see anything remotely like this marvelous, queasy-making terror ever again. This will change your concept of storytelling, and will erase any notion you ever held about puppets being mere child’s play.
4 STARS
(“The Cabinet” EXTENDED through April 25, at Redmoon Central, 1463 W. Hubbard St. . )
* The Cabinet is not suggested for audiences under age 13. Parental discretion is recommended for younger audience members. The Cabinet received this rating because it contains acts of violence and a dark story line.
The Cabinet production images by Venus Zarris.
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