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Hotel Cassiopeia
By Charles L. Mee
Directed by Anne Bogart
Produced by SITI Company
At Court Theatre
5535 S. Ellis Ave
Chicago, IL
Call 773-753-4472, tickets $28 - $54
Wednesdays & Thursdays at 7:30 PM
Fridays at 8 PM
Saturdays at 3 & 8 PM
Sundays at 2:30 & 7:30 PM
Running time is 75 minutes with no intermission
Through December 10, 2006
Hotel Cassiopeia an amazing theatrical event that you’ll either love or hate
Court Theatre is know to stretch the theatrical envelop with experimental works that includes bring in outside theatrical companies’ touring productions. These plays can be brilliant shows or colossal dogs. A case could be argued either way about their latest import, Hotel Cassiopeia by Charles L. Mee directed by Anne Bogart by SITI Company. This event, performance piece or play (the term used here loosely) is a 75 minute piece that baffles even veteran theatre goers. I was among those who asked “What was that about?” on my way out of the theatre. I should have read the six full pages of detail that somewhat explains what the work is all about. That would have help, but not much.
This is a highly stylized fantasy depicting the inter thoughts of a recluse artist, Joseph Cornell (1903-1972) who live at home in Queens with his dominant mother and invalid brother. Cornell never ventured too far from home having Manhattan as a log journey.
As a collage artist, Cornell made wooden boxes filled with an assortment of found objects (junk) including pocket watches, coiled springs, maps of the stars, thimbles, parrots, seashells, broken glass, colored balls, whale teeth and a lithograph among his vast array of things he placed in his boxes. He gave new meaning to ‘one man’s junk is another man’s treasure’ cliché or art in this case.
This eccentric fellow could make for a fine story but Charles L. Mee has to utilize multidisciplinary and multimedia elements to present Cornell’s observations about the world around him. The play was so subtle, obscure and slowly paced with drowning dialogue that many audience members, me included simply fell asleep. I must confess that it was the first time in years (and hundreds of plays) that a work put me to sleep literally —and I wasn’t tired. I tried to fight off the hypnotic sleep-educing effect of the work, but to no avail. The disconnect and the lack of dramatic tension and the lack of story together with boring material doomed the show for me. I noticed a split in the opening night audience—half were snoozing and half were mesmerized with this controversial work.
Mee’s structured the play around Cornell’s “sparkings”---“those breathtaking moments when mundane details of life shift into transcendence, when the glimpse of a girl crossing the street combines with the arc of a constellation and the profile of Lauren Bacall, when the everyday suddenly fuses for a moment with the eternal. Mee called this “metaphysical ephemera,” he saw loveliness in commonplace things.” (Quote from the press notes.)
What I saw was a nerdy man, Joseph (Barney O’Hanlon); a waitress (Michi Barall), an astronomer dressed in a white clown suit (Stephen Webber), an herbalist (Leon Inguisrud), a pharmacist (J. Ed Araiza), a ballerina (Ellen Lauren) and mother (Akiko Aizawa). These folks move in and out and around the stage doing strange movements that included repeating dialogue from old 1930’s films. They speak in partial conversations and perform disjointed actions.
These hard to follow scenes quickly went from vague to tedious as I was unable to understand what going on. Since we never feel Joseph’s wonderment or pain, we simply don’t care what happens to him. I wasn’t able to make sense out of the piece. The movements, multimedia effects were terrific, it was the lack of story that left me saying: “what was all that about?”
I will readily admit that many were captivated, even mesmerized by this unique work. I was bored to death. So be warned (and read the six pages of play notes before the show begins) that all serious theatre patrons have to consider seeing this show because it is so different, so subtle and so avant guard. A large Starbuck’s coffee before they show wouldn’t hurt either.
Hotel Cassiopeia is an important work, that appeals to the progressive and innovative. Just because I was bored and never connected with the style doesn’t mean that you won’t. I do appreciate the creativity and the adventurous spirit of the work—it just didn’t engage me. If you see this show, please drop me an email and let me know what you thing. No one will be neutral about Hotel Cassiopeia. You’ll either love it or hate it.
Somewhat Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast
Date Reviewed: November 18, 2006
Jeff Recommended
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