An Eclectic Cast for LATC’s ‘Illusion’

“It’s a very juicy group,” said director David Schweizer of his cast for Pierre Corneille’s “The Illusion,” opening this weekend at Los Angeles Theatre Center downtown. The cast is indeed eclectic: cult film star Mary Woronov, Beckett disciple Alan Mandell, “New Hollywood” entrees Lea Thompson and Jonathan Silverman and performance artists Tom Caylor and John Fleck, who “plays another great hammy role here,” assures Schweizer.

The piece (penned in 1636 as “L’Illusion Comique” and “freely” translated by Tony Kushner) is eclectic as well, weaving elements of tragedy and comedy, romance and violence, reality and mysticism. “At the time it was written, it was a kind of renegade item,” Schweizer noted. “Corneille was breaking laws, experimenting with the boundaries of theater. The sense of what kind of reality we’re in is constantly questioned.”

In the story, a father (Mandell) ventures to the cave of sorcerer Alcandre (Woronov), seeking information on the son (Silverman) he kicked out 15 years before. The unfolding action, in which the father observes scenes from his son’s life, “is an examination of love and passion,” said Schweizer, whose previous outings at LATC include Marlane Meyer’s “Kingfish” and “The Geography of Luck.” “Love that crosses societal barriers, love that sometimes incites violence.”

The director has augmented his storytelling with screen projections, a “fairly evolved music score, and lots and lots of lights.

“There’s so much playfulness in the piece: a love of theater, the illusion of theater--and all those possibilities.” The text, he added, “is not all in Alexandrine verse, but it has the flavor of the period. Some of the meter is set, some of it varies. My challenge is to create a world on stage--from a piece with all those disparate elements.”

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