PicksInSix Review: The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci - Goodman Theatre
LEARNING HOW TO LIVE… AND DIE.
Ronald Keaton | Guest Contributor | PicksInSix® Review
It’s a challenging moment for a theatre artist, when an opportunity to revisit a triumphant experience comes to the fore. At the Goodman Theatre through March 20, the wonderful writer/director Mary Zimmerman sees such a moment in her luminous work “The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci.”
This writer can best share this presentation by emphasizing the word “ensemble staging.” And it’s indeed strong, stylized staging here. First star of the evening that grabs one is the fabulous, sturdy Scott Bradley set design—gigantic file-like drawers on both sides of the stage that suggest all the accumulated knowledge and wordage that da Vinci gathered and created. Actors climb up and down and all over them like athletic spiders, finding nuggets of true original thought and concept to share. Up center stage is a simple open window that shows various parts of the world going by, as those same actors climb in and out in the storytelling. All framed, in a way, by pipes that Mr. Bradley included to sit on, stairs to climb, and entrances/exits at stages right and left to expedite the actors in their changes.
In all this work, the eight performers who all assume various parts of the great Leonardo’s person—Adeoye, Christiana Clark, Christopher Donohue, Kasey Foster, Cruz Gonzalez-Cadel, John Gregorio, Anthony Irons and Wai Yim—flow quite seamlessly through the sumptuous dialogue assembled for them. It’s nearly impossible to single anyone out, although it could be done, but at the cost of leaving something out that deserves praise. One of the lines here—“Invention... Mathematics is a paradise; the body is a machine”—perfectly describes this ambitious group.
This is Ms. Zimmerman’s real victory, I think—sifting and assembling dialogue from da Vinci’s own words and creating such an eloquent path for the ensemble to walk. The actors do so with authentic energy and commitment. They must be exhausted by evening’s end, being a kind of profound paradigm for the director’s vision with so much quick action and dialogue occurring simultaneously onstage. It reminds one of an old Chuck Braverman film, where the frames were as short as a half-second… which made one realize that we are dealing with what is arguably the closest thing to a human computer that the world has ever produced. How one distills such a creation with no traditional dramatic narrative from da Vinci’s over 5000 pages is, in itself, a marvelous, Herculean feat. And one breathtaking da Vinci thought haunts the memory: “All the while I thought I was learning how to live, I was learning how to die.”
In fact, the actor ensemble actually dances around the playing area as well, which makes the both delicate and strong Mara Blumenfeld costuming complement the onstage physicality, reminiscent of a Joffrey dance. The original music by Miriam Sturm and Michael Bodeen (also sound designer) flows lightly, almost water-like, through the whole evening, never intruding on the stage vision. Gorgeous lighting effects by designer T.J. Gerckens—even one that pointedly shows da Vinci’s views on how the human body accepts light itself—bathe the scenes in respect and active participation.
It’s a tight, compact 90-minutes of real genius shared with an audience, both from its subject and its author. COVID protocols continue to be observed at the Goodman as of this writing, so patrons should be prepared. But the Owen stage is quite a comfortable space, and the gem glowing up front is worth it.
GUEST CONTRIBUTOR | RONALD KEATON received an Equity Jeff Award for the performance of his one-man show CHURCHILL www.solochicagotheatre.com
PHOTO|Liz Lauren
GOODMAN THEATRE
presents
NOTEBOOKS OF LEONARDO DA VINCI
through March 20
Owen Theatre
170 N. Dearborn St.
(312) 443-3800
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