Jose Solís takes a look at Illyria:
Imagine if The Public Theater was a funhouse in which each venue was inhabited by the phantoms of performances past. Visitors might encounter Hair at the LuEsther, A Chorus Line at the Martinson, a cabaret starring Justin Vivian Bond at Joe's Pub, and of course Hamilton at the Newman. If such apparitions existed, they would all revolve around Richard Nelson's Illyria, which opened on October 30 at the Anspacher, but seems to have been summoned spirits from decades past. Nelson, who is a master of naturalism and making theater in the present, here presents something that lies between a diorama and a shared dream. Set in 1958, the play chronicles the events behind the scenes at a production of Twelfth Night at the outdoors Shakespeare Festival led by the legendary Joseph Papp; therefore, becoming an unofficial prequel to every single production of what we now know as Shakespeare in the Park. . . . |
