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 - coming soon
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