Each in his own Way
 

Review


 
  
The Chicago Reader                                                         30 March, 2001
EACH IN HIS OWN WAY, TinFish Theatre. "Life," Thomas Hardy observed, "is a series of seemings."  In Luigi Pirandello's 1924 comedy, the serial seemings come fast and furious, inside out and upside down.  Dragan Torbica directs a solid revival of this absurdist version of a revenger's tragedy: a beautiful but fickle actress inspires infidelity, suicide, and a challenge to a duel among the upper crust of an Italian town.
     Since it's Pirandello, of course the conflict breaks through the fourth wall and spills out into the lobby.  Torbica's cast of 17 bring a wink-and-a-nod gusto to the play's shifting realities, which makes it easier to forgive their occasional lapses in comic timing and diction.  Ben Huber makes a mostly impressive Chicago debut as		 Philosopher-peacmaker Diego Cinci, sometimes recalling the insouciant John Tanner in Shaw's Man and Superman, then adopting a mournful existentialist note reminiscent of Camus as he recalls watching a fly drown at his dying mother's bedside.  Mitchell Bisschop's Francesco Savio is the epitome of outraged frat-boy morality, and katy McDermott (stunning in Torbica's shimmering frocks) gives the actress's pouting self-indulgence and allegedly helpless passion considerable verve.
     There are clunky notes here and there - some cast members seem lost in the thickets of Pirandello's paradoxes.  But over all this TinFish production works as a reminder that 20th-century theater owes a huge debt to the Sicilian Nobel laureate. 

                                         --Kerry Reid

 
 
North Loop News                                                                                     19. April. 2001
'Each in His Own Way' explores illusion and Absurdity
By Joseph Cunniff
FINE ARTS CRITIC
 
 

     Luigi Pirandello, who lived from 1867 to 1936, was an Italian Playwright and novelist whose works deal with themes of illusion and reality and show a sometimes-absurdist view of life.
     His most famous play is "Six Characters in Search of an Author," and he won the Nobel Prize in 1934.  His themes and techniques anticipated the work of Bertold Brecht and Eugene O'Neill.
     Although he is considered a theatrical giant, not many of Priandello's works are performed too much today, and that's one of the reasons that TinFish Theater in Chicago deserves a lot of credit for tackling him.
     "Each in His Own Way" is a wild story of Romance, love and deceit.  It is filed with plays within plays.  It is very talky and sometimes confusing, and continuously explores Pirandello's questions such as "Do we see ourselves in our true reality, as we really are, and not as we would like to be?"  And, "Don't we believe ourselves to be, in good faith, different from what in substance we are?"

      The high-energy first half of the play seemed to be filled with such questions, quite demanding and intellectual.     But the intermission was a riot!  People from the audience that you saw scribbling notes and assumed were students or critics were revealed to be cast members, and were shouting and arguing as to the merits of the show.
    Improvisation and freelance arguments reigned supreme as folks battled away to the amusement of the "real" members of the audience - or are they? - become so influenced by what's happening on the stage that they imitate it.
     Director Dragan Torbica uses his large cast with great energy.  The lighting design of Jon Frazier changes as much as the action on-stage does, which is often, and the set design of Bob Smith juxtaposes bold poster-like colors of yellow, purple and green.
     There are some subtle and winning performances, including those of Benjamin Huber as Diego and James Elly as Doro.  If perhaps a few players sometimes get a bit shrill and over-the-top, it fits in with the absurdist nature of the play.
     In this, my first visit, I liked the TInFish Theater.  They are not afraid to handle the classics, and the tough stuff.
     "Each in His Own Way" plays through April 28 at the TinFish Theater, 4247 N. Lincoln Avenue.  Performances are Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m.  Call 773.549.1888