A lost girl, a giant pair of legs and a ridiculous heiress open the action of this term's absurdist mainstage play, "Time Remembered," which began pleasing audiences last Thursday night in Moore Theater.
The lush scenery and passionate acting make Jean Anouilh's play about love's longevity a fun and thought-provoking experience.
"Time Remembered" tells the strange story of Prince Albert, who has been inconsolable for years since his love of three days died in an unfortunate accident. The play also portrays his flamboyant aunt, the Duchess of Pont-au-Bronc, who has re-created on her rolling Brittany estate every place that her nephew and his lover visited during their three-day tryst.
As the final addition to her menagerie, the Duchess traps a young Parisian Milliner named Amanda, who bears a striking physical resemblance to Leocadia, on her estate and pays her to play the role of Leocadia in her nephew's fantasy land.
Not surprisingly, the nephew is not fooled. Prince Albert nonetheless convinces Amanda to stay and pretend to be Leocadia for him for just three days so that he can relive his lost love.
Amanda's portrayal of Leocadia, however, is far from perfect. She is too real for Prince Albert. He wants the Leocadia who was ambivalent, cold, uncaring and above all rich, but all he has is Amanda, who is headstrong, crass and poor.
Amanda realizes early on that she is in love with Albert, and the Duchess convinces her to pursue her interest in her nephew.
"You are young and in love. There is no one in the world more powerful than you," the duchess tells Amanda.
At the pinnacle of tension between the two characters, Amanda yells at Albert that not only did Leocadia never love him, but he never loved Leocadia.
Like much of Anouilh's work, "Time Remembered" dwells on love's ability to last. In his climactic speech, Prince Albert says that he keeps his monument to Leocadia because he is slowly forgetting her, and much of his dilemma and conflict throughout the play is Albert denying his love for Amanda because he feels he is betraying the memory of his first love.
Despite the typical plot of the love story, the actors and the extreme setting do a remarkable job of making such an absurd play believable, romantic without being sappy and truly enjoyable to watch.
The romantic leads, Liv Rooth '03 and Andrew Dahl '05, put on fine performances as Amanda and Prince Albert, respectively. They make the love story believable but still convey the questions of love and society to the audience.
The most impressive performance of the production is Hannah Chodos '06's breakthrough as Duchess of Pont-au-Bronc. Chodos makes the audience laugh and cry with her talent and lively, dedicated performance as the eccentric Duchess. Chodos stole the show in Thursday night's opening performance, and theater-goers have been raving about her since.
Also notable is the performance from Scott Ceresia '05 as Lord Hector, the Duchess' sycophant sidekick. Strong's natural, boisterous comedy is one of the high points.
Director Susana Tubert, perhaps best known for her film directing, has worked with, among others, Latin pop star Enrique Iglesias, novelist Joyce Carol Oats and poet Alicia Ostriker. Tubert does an excellent job of marrying the serious ideas of the play with the light-hearted absurdist plot line. She also provides excellent guidance for the extremely young cast.
The costumes and scenery are dazzling. From a giant pair of legs to Chodos' play-making costumes, the two-tiered set is visually fascinating and enhance the dream-like feel of the play.
Born in 1910 in Bordeaux, France, Jean Anouihl was a playwright nearly from birth. He wrote his first complete play by the time he was 12, and when he was 19 he co-wrote his first performed play, "Humulus le Muet," with Jean Aurenche.
Much of Anouihl's work leans toward the absurdist, but is not usually grouped with any other playwrights or a particular movement, though he claimed Jean Paul Sartre, Jean Giraudoux and Louis Jouvet amongst his influences.
The reclusive Anouihl wrote his first hit, "Time Remembered," originally called "Leocadia," in 1940, and became well known in the United States in the 1950s with his play "L'Alouette," or "The Lark."
In addition to being a playwright, Anouihl also had a successful career as a translator, and translated Shakespeare, Wilde and Greene into French. He also dabbled in screenplays in the 1940s and 1950s, with "Monsieur Vincent" (1947) and "Little Moliere" (1959).
Anouilh continued to write his tragic comedies until about ten years before his death in Lausanne in 1987. Among his other famous works were "Mandarin" (1930), "Y Avait un Prisoner (1935)," "Le Voyaguer Sans Bagage" (1937), "Antigone" (1944), and "La Culotte" (1978).
"Time Remembered" is showing at the Moore Theater Wednesday through Saturday this week at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.