My overall impression
Goddammit, there’s magic here.
Every relationship is a type of small magic. Unlike the magic “tricks” and psuedo-scientific forms of magic we see in grandiose displays, the magic of relationship demands the same change, the same transitions from one state to another, with the especially astonishing aspect of all parties involved not knowing how or why it occurred. Instead of the trick itself, the magician is the one that stays hidden, and the tricked are left scratching their heads and wondering how something that seemed, one moment, to be one thing suddenly became another with no rhyme or reason.
This show seems to me to be more than a play about relationships. In a fuller sense, it is a reminder that every show, or ideally every show, IS a relationship in itself, reaching inside the mind and life of the viewer and shuffling things around, poking and prodding to force feeling and reaction. This one certainly was for me, leading me on ups and downs and lifting me up to truly elated highs and leaving me, suddenly, exhausted and a bit confused at the end, in ways that were all too familiar.
On every level Lady Into Fox not only delivers, but makes the delivery seem effortless or almost accidental, never feeling unnatural despite the unusal subject matter on display. The production is lovely to look at, the environment warm and welcoming and unique, and the performers buy into their roles so fully that you can’t help but do the same.
There is magic here. It is not a trick.
