Continuing a movement of both new plays and female-focused
works this season, Geva Theatre Center presents the
world premiere of “The Magician’s Daughter” by Lila Rose Kaplan, a 30-something
playwright whose works highlight women’s issues. Kaplan has penned a
semi-autobiographical tale about a daughter’s relationship with her
high-functioning addict father. But even for the fortunate audience members who
do not relate to a family member with addiction, this remains a play for
everyone who’s ever had a father or daughter.
“The
Magician’s Daughter” begins as a show-within-a-show. The magician, Prospero
(Tyrone Mitchell Henderson), and his daughter, Miranda (Brittany Bellizeare), are getting ready to perform their magic act
for the audience when Miranda (immediately breaking the fourth wall) announces
to everyone she’s going to quit the act. (And if those names ring a bell, think
Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.”).
The show
runs just about 90 minutes without an intermission, and Bellizeare
and Henderson are the only cast members. While Bellizeare
functions as a sole character throughout, Henderson takes on multiple roles
(the most entertaining being “Black Pearl”). Miranda’s quest to find herself
repeatedly reminds her of Prospero, or, as she refers to him, the “gravitational
constant.”
Bellizeare handles Miranda’s complicated persona with
aplomb, leading the show’s energy from opening curtain but deferring to
Henderson as the roles shift halfway through. She captures exquisitely the
angst of a young 20-something coupled with the too-soon maturity of a child
who’s witnessed addiction in a parental figure. Henderson’s performance is
deceptive at first; just a ripple in Bellizeare’s
wake. When he pivots to a reinterpreted version of Prospero later in the show,
Henderson hits a stride, fully embracing — and executing — the difficult
nuances of his role with care.
The impressive
set, prop, and costume design is by Geva Theatre
Center staff. Scenic designer Sara Walsh has transformed the Fielding Stage
into a magic trick itself: rain falls from the rafters and dozens of stacked
boxes open to reveal props and costume pieces. Lex Liang’s costume design
provides swift changes for the characters when they can’t leave stage, and
Michael Weber’s magic and illusion design keeps the audience entranced
throughout.
“The
Magician’s Daughter” is a classic coming-of-age story with a young heroine at
the center, a refreshing take in a world where we “don’t hear enough from young
women, and we hear too much from old men,” as Miranda says. Equally refreshing
is the casting, which features actors of color in the two roles. The director,
Shelley Butler; assistant to the director, college student Michelle Garrett;
and Geva’s in-house dramaturg, Jenni Werner bring up
the female ratio even further.
As Prospero
chastises Miranda later in the show, you “need to decide if this is a poem, a
play, or a novel.” While that may be Kaplan acknowledging the narrative gets a
little windy, she’s taken an almost Shakespearean-meets-Kafka approach to the
hero’s journey. Halfway through the show, there’s a decided shift in the
character development as Prospero addresses the audience directly for the first
time since the play’s opening scene, and the dialogue between the two
characters shifts to a Beckett-like rhythm. Here, the emotion is highest and
the recounted trauma most exhausting. But at the heart of “The Magician’s
Daughter” is a metamorphosis: the arc of a parent-child relationship, and the
shifting identities that come during that journey.
This article appears in Jan 30 – Feb 5, 2019.
