(Neil Genzlinger’s review appeared in The New York Times, 9/19; via Pam Green.)
Ivan Viripaev, a well-regarded Russian playwright and screenwriter, apparently likes a challenge. He certainly sets himself one with “Illusions,” his New York debut, at the Baryshnikov Arts Center. It’s as if he asked himself, “Can I create a play out of four actors who don’t act so much as recite, and who never address one another?”
He can, and he did, and it makes for a surprisingly engaging, oddly moving work about love, commitment and missed opportunities. The piece, translated and directed by Cazimir Liske, presents the fragmentary tale of two married couples who were lifelong friends. Four actors (Anthony Gaskins, Stephanie Hayes, Annie Purcell and Mickey Solis) relate the intertwined stories of their lives, not so much portraying the four as embodying their perspectives