Illusion, confusion, dissilusion indeed! I have to admit that I didn't at all know what to expect from The Disappearing Act (formerly titled Illusion and Reality, as you'll see in the festival programme) and yet somehow still managed to be surprised. What I'd assumed to be simply a quick introduction of the production from its one and only performer emerged, in fact, to be the performance itself, a genuinely insightful if but haphazardly structured monologue centring on man's incapacity to reconcile ancient ideals of hope, love, and identity with the emotionally divisive nature of the modern world. Such a world, this show recalls, that threw us reeling into despondency at the horror of the World Trade Centre tragedy, mere months after the dawn of a new millenium.
Truth be told, this production lends itself to more of a psychologically exploratory group therapy session than a conventional play as such, but its defining characteristic, vitally, was its being suffused with such sincerity and heart. Sure, I was more than slightly bewildered by the actor's emulation of a robed Native American deity addressing the whole of makind from a plush chair, but sharing my thoughts with the rest of the audience at the end of the show, I was overwhelmingly struck by there having been a shift of atmosphere somewhere along the line; in some small but irreversible way, I think we all felt a little more alive.
You can catch the show at the Imperial Hotel at 4:00pm, Sunday 16th September - and make sure to bring an open mind.
Written by Rowena Price.
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