In A Magic Kingdom
By Celeste Sansregret
Factory Studio Theatre
Sun July 5 @ 9:15pm
Tue July 7 @ 6:45pm
Wed July 8 @ 8:00pm
Fri July 10 @ 11:15pm
Sat July 11 @ 1:45pm
Reviewed by Daina Valiulis
In A Magic Kingdom is a one-woman show about death. In 60 minutes, Celeste Sansregret talks about her father, her nephew Max, her friend John, and her grandmother — all losses of people dear to her heart. And that is basically it. Nothing deep is revealed about death, no new insight is shared, and, as always with death, it is more about the people who are left behind than the deceased.
As much as I understood and respect Celeste’s grief, this play was simply boring. The timeline of all these deaths was never clear, no major themes linked any of them, no conclusions were drawn, no parallels or tributes made. The production simply entailed a woman talking about how crappy it is to lose brilliant people. And yet it happens to us all.
There is almost nothing more to say. However, a positive aspect of the production was Celeste herself, who was engaging and funny — it’s just unfortunate that the performance didn’t back her up.
