A play about a magician explaining his magic, but in the least engaging way possible. Steve Cuiffo has been a magician his entire life - it is the only job he has ever had. Now in this one-man play, Cuiffo shares the stage with a tape recorder that is playing director Lucas Hnath's half of their conversations from a handful of meetings over the past few years. Cuiffo recreates his side of the conversation live, as well as the magic tricks he demonstrates for Hnath.
But actual magic tricks are few and far between. Instead, Hnath asks Cuiffo tons of questions and the result is more a therapy session than anything else. The question of originality is central - most magic tricks are recreations or versions of another - and Hnath challenges Cuiffo to do something original, and something to please his wife (who hates magic). I enjoyed the card tricks Cuiffo does at the beginning, and marveled at the trick where he turns water into ice out of nowhere. But the finale, the original trick to please his wife where he uses her creepy childhood doll and makes it move around a little... was anticlimactic to say the least. Atlantic Theater, Atlantic Stage 2 |
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