Adapted by: Mary Zimmerman
At: Lookingglass Theatre, 821 N. Michigan
Phone: (312) 337-0665; $30-$55
Runs through: Nov. 23
Mary Zimmerman is becoming a visionary legend in theaters in Chicago, New York, and around the country. Her arresting visuals, astonishing and artful staging, and a unique voice have made her a director to be reckoned with. It also doesn't hurt that her work has been recognized by a Tony Award in 2002 (for Metamorphoses … which premiered here). The fact that she comes from Chicago (and is an original member of the Lookingglass company) heightens our reputation as a significant contributor to the contemporary oeuvre of theatrical excellence.
It's refreshing to see this new, re-worked, and restaged version of The Secret in the Wings. Originally staged late night in a rented theater space in 1991, this breathtaking rendition of five little-known European fairy tales has grown up and is attracting the audience numbers it deserves.
The Secret in the Wings is framed by the device of a little girl left alone with a babysitter, the gruesome Mr. Fitzpatrick. The little girl tries to convince her parents that he's an ogre (and in his wife-beater T-shirt, smoking a cigarette, sporting tattoos, and lugging a serpentine tail behind him, he would be most parents' last choice as a caregiver), and that he will be looking for revenge because her father plucked a rose from his garden. But her preoccupied parents turn a deaf ear to her complaints and set off into the night. The first thing the ogre asks is 'Heidi, will you marry me?' which only horrifies the little girl even more. The Beauty and the Beast allusions give the play its thesis, which is voiced near the end: that one should not always trust one's eyes when it comes to love.
Zimmerman has crafted a magical, ethereal 90 minutes that fly by. The real storytelling begins with the ogre saying to Heidi, 'I have a tale.' 'I know,' Heidi responds, thinking, quite logically, that he's referring to the spotted appendage sprouting from his lower back. But then those four special words pop up: 'Once upon a time' and we begin our journey into the fantastic. Zimmerman has painted a beautiful canvas for her five tales, which make us laugh, enchant us, and plumb the darkest depths of the human heart. Using song, puppetry, gorgeous set design (Daniel Ostling), knockout costumes (Mary Blumenfeld), evocative music and sound (Andre Pluess and Ben Sussman) and often eerie lighting effects (T.J. Gerckens), the ensemble breathes fiery life into a tale of comedy about a princess who would not laugh, and the ill-fated suitors who try to make her (they meet a fate far worse than her dour silence); a heartbreaking story about a princess who's mother has died and the father who desires to make her his wife's replacement, causing her to flee to a snowy wood, inhabited by trees that are alive in more ways than one; the sad rendering of three queens banished to a mountainside and blinded and their survival … and so it goes.
This is peerless stuff. Elegant, imaginative, touching, and entertaining, The Secret in the Wings is hauntingly unforgettable.