The Delusionist
La Mama
9 May 2009
La Mama Theatre
Director, Lauren Clair, and performer, Curtis Fernandez, developed The Delusionist as a response to well known contemporary communications that were monitored, edited and interpreted for us by media. The concept is great, but I’m not sure that it’s a piece of theatre.
Dressed in a formal tuxedo, Fernandez deconstructs “speeches” by presenting them out of context as just their words. Among others, we get to hear George Bush’s response to the 911 attacks, Robert Farquharson’s interview with the police (after he escaped, but sons died after their car drove into a damn), our Nicole’s Oscar acceptance and our Kylie’s pop hit “Locomation”.
It’s fascinating to hear these words again, but without the passion, conviction and emotion of the original telling, they all felt kind of flat (yes, even “Locomotion”!) and as most were well known, or at least their speakers were, I immediately filled in the original context.
I was searching for some connection between the choices. Some were written, some were conversations or interviews, one was from a book, one was a mime and one was written by Stock, Aitken and Waterman for a soap starlet. There were only three that I would classify as a “speech”. The best connection I could come up with was that they were known to a certain type of middle aged, middle class urbanite who might regularly attend La Mama. As for ending with a “speech” from the dramaturge’s play - it just didn’t make sense, as it had no context for the audience to relate to and felt a bit like it was trying to show us what a “good” speech was.
Intellectualising aside, Fernandez’s performance is enjoyable, appealing and a lot of fun, but I couldn’t figure out what I was meant to be watching.
This review originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com.
