AFTER MAGRITTE and THE AMERICAN DREAM Chroma-Zone Productions at Mary-Arrchie Theatre
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
One would hardly call Tom Stoppard’s After Magritte or Edward Albee’s The American Dream an unfamiliar work. There seems to be at least one production of each of these suckers here every year. I’m sure there are plenty of logical reasons to continue reviving both–they’re short and written by reputable playwrights, and they feature small casts and uncomplicated sets. But anyone who’s already seen the plays will find little in Chroma-Zone’s mediocre production that’s new or exciting, and anyone somehow unfamiliar with them will most likely leave wondering why either is purported to be a classic.
An early work of Stoppard’s, the play is a bit precious: he seems more concerned with duplicating the effects of a surrealist painting than with creating a cohesive, intelligent work. But despite the sophomoric philosophizing about perceptions, the play, with its many inspired sight gags and turns of phrase, can be a hoot.
What makes the play so tiresome is that the ideal it criticizes is no longer valid. Does anybody still take seriously the fantasy of Formica countertops, tuna casserole, mom in an apron, and dad in a bathrobe and slippers? Deconstructing the myth of the Dick Van Dyke/Donna Reed fantasyland may have been instructive in the late 50s and early 60s, but not anymore.
