Theatre reviews
Theatre Reviews

The Cabinet

Tom Williams

At Redmoon Theatrethe cabin at redmoon

Directed by Vanessa Stalling

Inspired byt the 1919 silent film The Cabinet of Dr Caligari

Unspeakable Horror at Redmoon Theatre

Redmoon silences the crowd with its Tim Burton Style of storytelling in The Cabinet. The Cabinet is a dark hypnotic story where Doctor Caligari controls his sleeping patient Cesar and tests the limits of murder and horror out in the real world. It has the feel of a dream, like we are watching each scene through the sleeping mind of Cesar. Without any control over his actions Cesar narrates his story and we hear his cryptic voice through an old fashion gramophone. While Cesar struggles to relive and tell us his about his horrific actions we witness the brilliance of Redmoon and the creative designers as they reenact the story with puppets.
The technical effects are what make this production such a unique artistic display of high quality storytelling. The puppets look like creepy humans pulled out of a dark comic strip. Cesar has a suicidal look about him, while the Doctor Caligari freaks me out as his blue eyes appear real and follow me as he moves around the cabinet. The scenes systematically interchange taking place within different cabinet spaces, again creating the sense of watching a live animated comic strip. The make-up on the puppeteers is astounding. With darkened shadows accentuating their bone structure the actual humans appear as sketches, enhancing the artistic insanity of the story.
With use of an abundance of different multi media effects from slide projections, to written words and sound effects that will make your skin crawl, there is nothing else like this playing in Chicago. Short, but not sweet, The Cabinet is a must see for theatre goers looking for the abstract and genius.

RECOMMENDED

Timothy McGuire

At Redmoon Theatre, 1463 W Hubbard St., Chicago, IL 60642, for tickets contact the box office at 312-850-8440, Tickets range from $15 to $25, playing Thursday through Sunday, February 5th to March 7th, 2010, run time is 60 minutes with no intermission.

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