Disney World: the happiest place on Earth, tourist destination for millions, monolithic cultural institution, and setting for Black Door Theatre Company's Fringe Festival presentation of Cory Conley's play Magic Kingdom.
By choosing our national monument to childhood whimsy as the primary locale, Conley drops us somewhere likely to have connections and memories for each member of the audience, from riding the Spinning Teacups as a kid, to complaining about the It's a Small World ride as a teen, to revisiting the park as an adult with (or without) kids of one's own. Disney has a remarkable place in our national, cultural, collective consciousness, and, in a matter of speaking, Conley and his team accomplish something similar with this play. Like Disney world, they craft a world of imagination, and hold up reality next to fiction, or shall we say, "magic."
To sketch the raw details of this play would do a great injustice to the nuanced and thoughtful way in which it unfolds. Roughly, Conley's bossy and impatient sister, played scarily and convincingly by Gina LeMoine, has been deserted by her husband suddenly and viciously and left with the care of their eerily insightful nine year old daughter while the Upper East Side family is on vacation at Disney World. In some misguided attempt at heroism and to prove that he isn't the awful brother his sister accuses him of being, our narrator (Cory) flies to Orlando to save them from their current disaster.
It's a juicy enough plot in its own right, but Conley imbues the play with a rare intelligence and soul, forcing us to think about what it means to be happy and fulfilled in our careers, our relationships, and our families. Yet he does this with a light touch, and standout performances by Daniel K Isaac as an almost robotic Disney executive and Cameron Michael Burns as a scorned student and later as a forward waiter keep the audience laughing, even through a two plus hour performance. Through a clever and bitingly comical blend of multimedia, from iPhone screens to Facebook walls, director Craig Baldwin and technical director Drew Ledbetter make a very minimal stage design come alive. The stage becomes...maybe not quite Disney, and yet, though the play strips a hugely recognizable place of its lavish trappings, summer heat, costumed characters, loud rides, and bustling tourists, it still manages to capture some unique essence of the place -- especially its darker aspects. Being in the happiest place on earth doesn't make our problems go away, and it doesn't make dealing with family any easier.
Magic Kingdom has a strong ensemble overall, but the highest praise of the day belongs to Conley, who is incredibly daring in baring his real life to us through the stage. His role as quirky master of ceremonies blends into his role as a playwright, a teacher, a brother, an uncle, and gay man. He frames the play such that we believe we're being told a story from real life, and some parts feel achingly real. That he has created such a narrow distinction between real life and fiction that we as an audience strive to understand the difference is a testament to a strong talent at his craft. In many ways this play can serve as a master craft in breaking the fourth wall, something which Conley proves can still be fresh, inventive, and clever, even in -- perhaps, especially in -- our technological age.
When he wasn't rolling over in his grave (um... ice chamber?), Walt Disney himself would have applauded, I'm sure.
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