8/11/2023 0 Comments Red tape recordee![]() ![]() Those are of the fairly basic variety as far as magic shows go, including various card tricks, tearing a newspaper into pieces and then instantly reassembling it, making a coin jump up in the air, and the classic cups and balls routine. But while he may aspire to the sort of higher thematic aspirations that the playwright has in mind, he seems happiest when merely pulling off one of his tricks in virtuoso fashion. Cuiffo is an engaging, genial presence who seems fully on board with the show’s conceit, as demonstrated by his enthusiastic “Cool!” after Hnath describe his idea for the evening on the tape. If only he wasn’t trapped in this pretentious conceptual theater piece in which he’s forced to respond on cue like one of those hapless volunteers manipulated by magicians as part of their act. ![]() This show provides the opportunity for audiences to see Cuiffo performing his excellent sleight-of-hand illusions in very intimate circumstances, which is a considerable treat. So much so, in fact, that he once drafted a complimentary letter to be signed by a foreign dignitary for whom he performed by copying the exact text of a similar letter sent to Harry Houdini from a German prince. We hear the playwright’s voice emanating from a cassette tape recorder onstage, to which Cuiffo responds live, apparently recreating his end of the discussions verbatim.Ĭuiffo, a frequent collaborator of Hnath’s, is a very talented magician who clearly loves what he does and has a reverence for the history of his profession. This collaboration with illusionist Steve Cuiffo revolves around a recording of conversations between him and the playwright in which they discuss Cuiffo’s approach to his craft. He employs a similar device for A Simulacrum, currently receiving its world premiere by Atlantic Theater Company. For the gimmicky (and in my estimation, wildly overpraised) Dana H., he used a tape recording of his mother describing her horrific experience of being kidnapped as a springboard for a virtuoso lip-synching performance by Deirdre O’Connell. The award-winning author of such acclaimed plays as Red Speedo, Hillary and Clinton, The Thin Place and A Doll’s House, Part 2, among others, seems to have developed a strange fixation with using audio voice recordings as a primary element in his work. What’s the deal with Lucas Hnath and tape recorders? ![]()
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