Reviews 2006
Reviews 2006
✭✭✭✭✩
by Mark Brownell, directed by Sue Miner
Pea Green Theatre Group/Theatre Voce, Tarragon Theatre Extra Space, Toronto
May 21, 2006
If you’re a fan of 20th-century art, you’re probably a fan of Joseph Cornell (1903-72), the self-taught American artist famed for carefully positioning found objects in shallow, upright, glass-fronted boxes. Each box, like a preserved dream, forces the viewer to decipher the interrelationships of the objects on display. Though his work influenced everything from Pop Art to modern installations, the man himself was extremely shy and lived most of his life with his mother while caring for his beloved wheelchair-bound brother.
Mark Brownell’s play in Sue Miner’s delightful production explores the contradictions and connections between Cornell’s life and work. Brenda Guldenstern’s incredibly clever set is itself like a Cornell box enclosing the loony, surreal action inside. James Kirchner is perfectly captures Cornell’s mixture of awkwardness, naïveté and inspiration. Clinton Walker gives a moving portrait of Cornell’s brother, the likely subject of his most famous box, the Medici Slot Machine. Terry Tweed is hilarious as Cornell’s uncomprehending mother and in cameos as Greta Garbo and Lauren Bacall. Jonathan Wilson plays many roles but understandably goes over the top as Salvador Dalí and Jackson Pollack. Anne Page is very funny as vulgar cashiers who become Cornell’s latest crushes. The play’s triumph is to make us see the world as Cornell did--an infinity of boxes filled with dreams.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2006-05-11.
Photo: James Kirchner. ©Philip Cygan.
2006-05-11
Medici Slot Machine - The Life and Times of Joseph Cornell