THEATRE REVIEW:
KPBS
AIRDATE: September 26, 2003
Once upon a time… there was a beautiful princess, asleep under a
spell, waiting for the kiss that would revive her and restart her life. Only this
time, she's not slumbering in the woods or in a castle. She's onstage at La
Jolla Playhouse. The ancient tale of Sleeping Beauty is made fresh, modern, and
achingly relevant by theater wizard Tina Landau, who wrote and directed the
world premiere, "Beauty." The story is told in two different times,
two different places. But when the heart is true and the spirit is willing,
love conquers all. That's one premise of Landau's magical, mythical creation.
Another focus is the Crone, seen in many traditions not as the witch, hag or
invisible older woman she has become in our culture, but as the wise, ancient
holy one who possesses the power of age and time, retribution and
transformation. This is our narrator, Constance, a self-confessed crone, part
fairy, part jilted lover, part protector/part imprisoner of the princess, and,
in good part, a liberator of souls. It was Constance, lashing out at the King
for rejecting her, who cast the spell on the princess. Having been pricked by
the spindle, as prophesied, Rose has been asleep for 1000 years. She wants to
awaken, but not as a vapid, subservient beauty; she wants freedom, equality,
liberation. We've already met her liberator, James, a modern-day seeker armed
with cellphone. He enters into a quest to find the woman who haunts his dreams.
Metaphorically, the play takes off from the notion that Beauty is
asleep in the world, and goes on to confront the idea of being receptive to
Love, ready to receive the awakening kiss, to take a leap into the unknown.
Landau's brilliant creation is far more Joseph Campbell than Grimm Brothers or
Disney. It's a dreamscape, a contemporary myth about faith and love, fantasy
and reality, independence and perseverance, being asleep or being alive. The
play awakens the prince or princess or crone in each of us… the seeker, the
sought, the sage. In glorious stage pictures and lyrical language, we learn
that each of us has to be willing to go through briars and brambles to find
truth, beauty, honesty, self-fulfillment and love.
The production is gorgeous to behold -- simple, symbolic, stylized,
enigmatic, musical and irresistible. The set, designed by Riccardo Hernandez,
suggests both the soft green of nature and the metal angularity of an urban
landscape. The lighting and costumes enhance the imagery and illusion. The
three central characters are charismatic and emblematic: gifted actor-singers
Jason Daniely and Kelli O'Hara as James and Rose, and the grounded but
enchanting Lisa Harrow as Constance.
The robust ensemble includes five talented UCSD graduate students, who
were part of Landau's workshop of the play here two years ago. There is
something so primal here -- so deep within our collective consciousness that
you cannot walk away unmoved, unprovoked undazzled. Of course, there is a Moral.
And a luminous final image. And then, The End.
©2003
Patté Productions Inc.