ABOUT THE PLAY

Grand Magic

World Première Translation
By Eduardo De Filippo
In a new English translation by John Murrell and Donato Santeramo
Directed by Antoni Cimolino 

House Program for Grand Magic

Grade Recommendation Grade 7+

Content Advisory

Please see the show page for a detailed audience advisory.

Synopsis

In his lifetime (1900-1984), playwright, actor, and theatre and film director Eduard De Filippo was so beloved by the Italian public that he is still known across the country as "Eduardo." A performer and playwright from a young age, De Filippo bought a Naples theatre in 1948 and transformed it into a venue for some of the greatest Italian plays of the 20th century (several written and directed by De Filippo himself). He was made senatora a vita (senator for life) by the Italian Prime Minister and his plays and films are enjoyed by audiences around the world. 

Grand Magic is a perfect introduction to De Filippo's oeuvre. With its dizzying cast of characters, wacky subplots, pratfalls, and flights of fancy, the play captures De Filippo's unique tragicomic vision. The hilarious and deeply moving play is presented in a new English translation by John Murrell, enjoying its world premiere at the Stratford Festival's Tom Patterson Theatre.

Grand Magic opens in a seaside Naples town not long after the Second World War. There the well-heeled vacationers of the Hotel Metropol pass the time snickering at the illusions of the past-his-prime magician Otto Marvuglia and gossiping about the antics of Calogero Di Spelta, the jealous husband of the beautiful Marta. Calogero's jealousy, however, is not unfounded. So desperate is Marta to run off with her lover that she bribes Otto to make her disappear inside a magic box during his show. Otto's illusion works, but when the police join the search for the missing Marta, the magician is forced to pull off his greatest trick: convincing Calogero that his wife is hiding somewhere inside the magic box.

The play's theatrically absurdist style, which seamlessly blends sentimentality, farce and erudite philosophizing, gives North American audiences unfamiliar with modern Italian theatre a crash course in learning to laugh while asking life's most perplexing questions. How do we separate illusion from reality? Are the two categories as different as we tell ourselves? And when it comes to the illusions we choose to believe in, aren't we all practiced magicians? Grand Magic reveals the illusions and stories we choose to live by without judging us for these very human magic tricks. 

Curriculum Connections

• Global Competencies:
  • Collaboration, Communication, Critical Thinking, Creativity, Metacognition, Self-Awareness
  • Grade 7-8
    • The Arts (Dance, Drama, Music, Visual Arts)
    • Language
  • Grade 9-12
    • The Arts (Dance, Drama, Music, Visual Arts)
    • English
  • Grades 11-12
    • Social Sciences and Humanities

  Themes
  

  • Belief and Disbelief
  • Deceptive Appearances
  • Expectation
  • Faith and Trust
  • Gossip
  • Hope
  • Illusion and Reality
  • Infidelity
  • Jealousy
  • Performance
  • Relationships
  • Storytelling 

   

DISCUSSION AND REFLECTION QUESTIONS

PRE-SHOW QUESTIONS

• Do you believe in magic? Why or why not?
• Have you ever seen a magician perform? Was it a positive or negative experience for you? What made the magician's illusions successful or unsuccessful?
• Do you think people sometimes choose to believe something even though they know it can't be true? Why? 
• Telling a "white lie" means that one hides the complete truth to spare someone's feelings. Have you ever told a "white lie" before? How did you feel in that situation? 
• What does hope mean to you? How and where do you find hope when things are hard or feel overwhelming?
• Do you think that you have a good imagination? Can you think of a time when you needed to use your imagination?
• How does one tell illusion from reality? How do you decide what is true and what is false?

POST-SHOW QUESTIONS

• What to you think about the choices that Otto made in the play? Do you agree with his plan and the steps he took? Why or why not?
• This is an English translation of an Italian play. What challenges might emerge when translation g a play from its original language? What impact might this have especially on a comedic play?
• The director of the play, Antoni Cimolino, asked: "In order to live, what kind of illusion do we have to tell ourselves in order to be able to survive and to be able to go through our lives with a story that we believe in?" What do you think he means by this?
• The "Illusory Truth Effect" is when people come to believe false information is true when they hear it repeated over and over again. How does this relate to the play as well as to current issues of misinformation?
• Are there any unintentional harms that might be caused through the production of this play? If so, what are they and what might be done to take care of the artists and audience members participating in the work?

MINDS ON

Objective: Students will explore creative writing, communication and character by analyzing, editing and paraphrasing one of Otto's speeches from the play.

Materials: Otto's speech from Grand Magic (page 40-41), highlighters, writing materials.

Directions:

• Provide students with a copy of Otto's speech.
• Independently or in small groups, ask students to:
  • Identify Otto's goal with this speech
  • Highlight the five most important sentences
  • Edit the speech down to include only the key information without losing meaning
  • Paraphrase the remaining speech in their own works 
• Invite students to perform their paraphrased speech based on Otto's speech.
• As a class, discuss why the playwright made the choices they did when writing Otto's lines.

Possible Extensions:

• What Happens Next?: Invite students to demonstrate their creative writing skills and imagination by writing a scene that takes place a day, week, month or year(s) following the original ending of Grand Magic. 

Debriefing Questions:

• Reflect on the process of editing Otto's original speech. How did you decide what elements to keep and which to edit?
• Which speech was more effective: yours or Otto's? Why?
• What does Otto's way of speaking tell us about him?
• How does Otto use language to communicate? What tactics or techniques does he employ? 

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CONNECTION TO THE ARCHIVES

This is the third play by Eduardo De Filippo to be produced by the Stratford Festival. Prior productions by the playwright include 1997's Filumena about a womanizer who is tricked into marriage and 2018's Napoli Milionaria which follows the story of a Neapolitan family prospering off the black market during the Second World War.

Mamie Zwettler as Teresa and Shruti Kothari as Maria Rosaria in Napoli Milionaria!, 2018. Written by Eduardo De Filippo. Directed by Antoni Cimolino. Designed by Julie Fox. Lighting design by Michael Walton. Sound design by Thomas Ryder Payne.
Stratford Festival Archives, GPO.2018.009.0290

The Stratford Festival's Archives maintains, conserves and protects records about the Festival and makes those materials available to people around the world. Their collection contains material ranging from 1952 right up to the present and includes administrative documents, production records, photographs, design artwork, scores, audio-visual recordings, promotional materials, costumes, props, set decorations and much more. These materials are collected and preserved with the aim of documenting the history of the Festival, preserving the page-to-stage process, and capturing the creative processes involved in numerous other activities that contribute to the Festival each season.

RESOURCES

Trailer -  Grand Magic
House Program - Grand Magic
Study Guide PDF - Grand Magic

Study Guides

View past Study Guides and Study Guides for all 2023 plays, available free of charge on our website.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Grand Magic at Theater Club (The New York Times)

List of Eduardo De Filippo's List of Plays

Stratford Public Library Suggested Reading List of Grand Magic

Booking Information: Tickets, Workshops, Chats and Tours

Student Matinées

You may book any available date, but selected student matinée performances for this show are at 2:00 p.m. on the following dates:

2:00 p.m.

• Monday, May 8th
• Wednesday, May 17th
• Friday, May 19th
• Wednesday, May 31st
• Wednesday, June  7th
• Friday, June  23rd
• Thursday, June 29th
• Friday, September 8th
• Friday, September 15th
• Tuesday, September 19th
• Tuesday, September 26th 

Workshop & Chats

Pre or Post-Show Workshops and Post-Show Chats (virtual, onsite or at your school/centre) can be booked by calling the Box Office at 1.800.567.1600.

TOOLS FOR TEACHERS SPONSORED BY

Tools for Teachers include Prologues, Study Guides and Stratford Shorts.       

PROUD SEASON PARTNERS 

CORPORATE SUPPORT FOR THE 2023 SEASON AT THE TOM PATTERSON THEATRE IS GENEROUSLY PROVIDED BY ROBERT & MARY ANN GORLIN, BY DR. M.L. MYERS, BY NORTHPINE FOUNDATION AND BY SYLVIA SOYKA.

PRODUCTION SUPPORT OF GRAND MAGIC IS GENEROUSLY PROVIDED BY ROBERT & MARY ANN GORLIN, BY DR. M.L. MYERS, BY NORTHPINE FOUNDATION AND BY SYLVIA SOYKA.