Thu. July 21, 2011
By Michael J. Roberts
After a twenty year absence in producing shows, Rare Terra Theatre, a collaborative effort by Ian Streicher, Guy Van Swearingen and Dragan Torica, has re-emerged with the world premier of Greg Kallere's "A Beautiful Spell" at the Royal George Theatre. This 90 minute one act revolves around a married couple who suddenly realizes that the love they once felt for each other is no longer there and the struggle that ensues to some sort of rationalization for what brought them to this point.
The action takes place solely in the mission style bedroom of a Brooklyn apartment, where we find Franny wide awake at 3:00 a.m. staring at her sleeping husband, Jim, and she begins the mantra that sets the tone for the rest of the play, stating "I don't think I love you anymore", with panic ensuing. Strongly acted by the always competent Eric Burgher, who is a Profiles Theatre regular, and the amazing Maggie Corbett, A Beautiful Spell is one of those plays that makes you wonder what the process is for choosing such poorly written material.
In "A Beautiful Spell", the playwright cheats his actors and the audience by never giving the characters any type of understandable back story that would allow an audience to become involved or care about Jim and Franny's life. Thus there is no emotional arch for the couple to go through and in the end, absolutely no pay off for the audiences' investment. Also, there are some contextual issues in the dialogue that are especially off-putting, especially that of Jim. Specifically his constant use of the "F" word, is extremely boorish and out of context with his stature and occupation. Little things like this, as well as having a 5 year old son in the next room who seems to be oblivious to the over the top yelling, makes this play not ring true. There is also no reason to have split the audience in two sections with the set in the middle (quite often done at Profile's). Watching other audience members across from me twitching and drinking also takes away from the actors.
Mr. Burgher and Ms. Corbett do have some wonderful moments together. What is painfully absent script wise as far as emotional drama is many times made up for by their skillful and crisp chemistry, especially Ms. Corbett's comedic timing.
Rare Terra Theatre has such great talent behind them, let's hope that their next project is more carefully chosen. Many of the people behind Rare Terra are also involved with Profiles. However, Profiles Theatre succeeds because of its unabashed uniqueness and in the material it brings to fruition. Rare Terra seems to be trying too hard to emulate Profile's success and needs to find its' own voice to succeed in Chicago's prime theatre market.
"A Beautiful Spell" runs through August 7th at the Royal George Gallery, 1641 N. Halsted St., Chicago. For tickets, please call the Royal George box office (312) 988-9000 or visiting www.ticketmaster.com. For more information on Rare Terra Theatre, visit www.rareterratheatre.com
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