Hotel Cassiopeia at the Court Theatre

SITI Company's production of Hotel Cassiopeia at Court Theatre is deeply flawed but reveals moments of radiant poetry and surreal glam.

The title of the play is exactly the same as the title of a mixed media masterwork by American artist Joseph Cornell (1903 -1972). The work of art in question is a shadow box collage composed of found objects - a broken clay pipe, a metal rod supports a sphere that can roll back and forth, fragments of astronomical maps and cheap paint. These abandoned things are layered with such awed respect for their mystical power that the whole evokes a kind of longing and a deep desire for memory.

I have appreciated Cornell since I was a kid in high school taking classes at the Art Institute of Chicago*. Thanks to a pair of visionary Chicago collectors, AIC has the largest representation of this brilliant, indigenous American genius.

Cornell's contribution to our visual language is GREATLY UNDERAPPRECIATED. His shadow boxes, collages and even his short films have fostered so many imitations, homages and adaptations that long ago they made a seamless transition to background.

Cornell's layered, collaged style has been appropriated by soulless advertisers, lesser artists (myself included) and even some pretty good filmmakers with rarely a peep of credit or respect. It is my feeling that Mr. Warhol owed a bow to Joe Cornell, too.

And what makes SITI, the Court Theatre job so difficult is the fact that they attempt reconnaissance with Mr. Cornell, himself. The authenticity of Cornell's work and the lack of confessional details about his deep process provide too many opportunities to fail.

Scraps of Cornell's life are on the table: an insular family life devoted to a severly disabled brother and dependent widowed mother, idolatry of popular feminine characters - Lauren Bacall, ballerinas, waitresses. There's simply not a lot to go on and you know what happens when you assume...

Five Words for Posterity; "Too Much Gold Spray Paint"
Mr. Cornell was creating authentic stage sets in his work - imaginary platforms for rich imaginary characters. When repping an artist whose internal world and sense of nuance allows him to combine sand and newpaper in a stunning new level of shibui, you've got to get the "look of it" right. This was not accomplished at Court. The sets, material and lighting seem plastic, fake and tawdry compared to Cornell's brilliant sense of authenticity, romance and his elevation of the mundane to the divine.

Don't expect Hotel Cassiopeia's structure to jive with other plays and films about great artists. "Lust for Life", or in recent times "Basquiat" both had linear narratives. Hotel Cassiopeia presents fragments while grasping at every straw from the experimental theatre bale. One might say Cornell's work is especially prone to this approach but some sense of dignity and reserve is missing.

Regular Chicago theatre goers will no doubt draw comparisons to TMLMTBGB's production of "Boxing Joseph Cornell" which was a moderate critical success and a memorable creation. I believe "Boxing" succeeded because it did not attempt to imitate Cornell's visual style and steered clear of personal historiography.

On the other hand, at the Court production I fell in love with several actors. Ellen Lauren as, ironically, "the Ballerina / Lauren Bacall" lifts us out of this play and into Cornell's rationale for idolizing the divas.

Through January 8th.

Special thanks to Howard White - for the ticket.

*Another amazing coincidence today - after the play I saw my old teacher from those high school Art Institute classes in the lobby. Twenty-seven years ago Betty Blum taught me Museology (museum studies) through a State of Illinois Gifted Program. I was a sophomore and this class introduced me to the work of Joseph Cornell.

I've seen her a few times over the years. Betty is wonderful - funny and smart and after us dim, bratty kids she went on to work as the coordinator and interviewer for this amazing archive - The Art Institute of Chicago Architect's Oral History Project.

The Project is so important. Quite a few of the characters represented in the archive have since passed on to the big drafting room in the sky. Most of them are really entertaining especially an old friend of mine - Jim Ferris (1925 - 2002)- who was a compatriot of Mies van der Rohe.