Word: aladdin
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...does Aladdin resign himself to his fate, as does a dishonest merchant, whose excuse for cheating the boy is. "It's my destiny." (Early in the play, a paradoxically liberated slave girl not only refuses to be sold to the dishonest merchant, but she helps an honest one to pay for her.) "Don't wait for angels to save you," the slave girl sings at the evening's end. "Make a home in the body God gave you. Alone." Aladdin, then, is the story of a boy whose "exile" from the material world keeps him honest, open and strong...
There are also angry, loving, weary monologues by Aladdin's mother, delivered in suitably earth-bound settings, and consistently funny allusions to the Sultan's autonomy, as when the Grand Wazir explains to the disrespectful Scholar Wu that the Sultan has spared his life because "the absolute impotence of your attacks consoles him." Or when a Lady of the Sultan's court agrees with Aladdin's mother about the Princess's beauty: "She's a lovely girl. I say so, so should you: to do otherwise would be treason...
...four actors playing Aladdin are supposed to embody different aspects of his character. Some do--Jeannie Affelder, with her melancholy clown's face and breathily resonant voice, touchingly conveys the pain of protean identity, and Rodman Flender does well with Aladdin's ironic side. Kevin Avery and Paul Warner--though able performers--do not realize markedly different dimensions of the character. Although the protagonist's multiplicity robs the show of a central performer with whom one could empathize, the four Aladdin's intriguingly suggest an entire universe within a single body. (More's the pity that some people go through...
...rehearsed, doesn't really gel, but there is nice work by lots of capable actors. Among Mayer's previous collaborators, Woodward Wickham is an unmagical magician and Andrea Portago a plebian Lady, but Francis Gitter has a compelling presence, rivetingly sad eyes, and moments of gaunt, tranquil beauty as Aladdin's mother, and Vincent Canzoneri is a wittily forthright Scholar Wu. As the Grand Wazir, David Prum reveals a precious comic style, a sublimely funny blend of ham and deadpan, and Jenny Cornuelle, a most impudently regal actress, is a flashing, mesmerizing Sultan. Maybe best of all is the Princess...
...finish his script to spend more time rehearsing his actors, but--hell--I can sympathize with slow, thoughtful writers--this review was scheduled to run yesterday. Though the production is untidy and the play unfinished (Mayer might fill out his protagonist and tighten in particular the first act). Aladdin is an exhilarating reminder that theatrical magic is most wondrous when it is achieved without tricks...