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The Devil’s Daughter
By Fred Paul Bailey
Produced by La Costa Theatre Company
3931 N. Elston Ave.
Chicago, IL
Tickets: 773-866-0200 or www.lacostatheatre.com, $20
Thursdays thru Saturdays at 8:00 pm, Sundays at 4:00 pm
Running time is 90 minutes with one intermission
Through December 14th
A Magic Show that Lacks Illusion
The publicity for The Devil’s Daughter, now playing at La Costa Theatre should drop its theatrical pretense and admit that it is an amateur magic show and nothing more. If you go what you will see is a collection of 11 famous, mostly Houdini illusions that are adequately performed. The props are beautifully crafted but the illusion that this is theatre fails miserably. By far the best thing about the show is that you are close enough to the illusions to see how they work. Writer Fred Paul Bailey based his play on a three page story he wrote 14 years ago and it would seem that he spent little time adding any material or adapting it for the stage. The dialogue is lifeless and director Jonathan Hymen’s staging of it is less than that. Ditto for the lighting and set design.
Some amount of credit is due Michael Cook for his portrayal of the magician Blake Donovan as well as to the rest of young actors for executing the illusions, but that is as far as it goes. Hymen, who is also La Costa’s artistic director, has taken this once promising, now struggling company a giant leap further down the role to hell with this choice.
NOT RECOMMENDED
Randy Hardwick
randyontheglobe@yahoo.com for comment
Date Reviewed: November 6, 2008
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