Playwright: conceived and written
by Nicholas DuFloth
At: Silent Theatre Company at
Edgewater Presbyterian Church,
1020 W. Bryn Mawr
Phone: 773-597-5403; $20
Runs through: April 20
BY MARY SHEN BARNIDGE
The action opens with a newscast announcing the death of American tycoon William Rupert Kane after a long illness. His final words were alleged to have been the single word, 'Adelaide,' an enigmatic legacy triggering a media frenzy as reporters search in vain for clues to its significance...
All right, so an original plot is not the main attraction in this 'satirical homage' to the legendary Orson Welles film, Citizen Kane. Nor is it the irony of the Silent Theatre Company—a troupe devoted to the replication of pre-sound cinema—selecting a 'talkie' as the focus of their latest production. What renders Nicholas DuFloth's proposal to update the 1941 screenplay so conceptually impressive is the accuracy of his analogical choices, both in the text—where the ambitious Kane strategically marries the daughter of an Internet mogul, for example—and in the technology employed in the quest to identify the mysterious Adelaide.
Ah, yes—the technology! In 1941, news was gathered by journalists packing notebooks and reel-to-reel tape recorders, often accompanied by photographers toting bulky flash cameras and even more cumbersome movie equipment. Nowadays, the team assigned to assemble a television retrospective on the deceased magnate has all these at its service, but it has so much more: The video score assembled by Krzysztof Piotrowski, Victor Holstein and Dave Cullen encompasses live satellite feeds ( complete with characteristic stop-motion resolution ) ; hand-held mini-cams ( including a sequence where the footage records the flight of a tabloid snoop pursued by security guards ) ; PDA candid shots; interviews in remote sites featuring cavelike acoustics and ambient noise; and a fully-produced TV movie ( only briefly viewed, but keep an eye on the credits ) . Oh, there are some live-action scenes, too, accompanied by incidental music from a stageside jazz combo.
Most astonishing, however, is how efficiently this ambitious project is executed, clocking in at a tidy 70 minutes even on its opening night, when the electronic cues balked occasionally ( perhaps exacerbated by overlap from the tech-heavy show sharing the space at Edgewater Presbyterian ) .
Triple threat Nicholas DuFloth, in addition to writing and directing, turns in a charismatic performance as the complex hero, flanked by a trio of actors in a multiplicity of roles, and the aforementioned cluster of musicians. Look for this show to do Chicago proud when Silent Theatre embarks on its 2008 summer tour.