Thanks to set designer Nick Schwartz, a good portion of the audience has to
watch the Trap Door Theatre revival of Luigi Pirandello’s Naked
unfold through casement windows placed right in their line of sight, over
the downstage lip of the performing area. Since each window is composed of
eight small panes, any given moment of the play may be broken up into 16
separate squares.
When we first meet Ersilia, she’s just arrived at Nota’s apartment,
delighted to the point of shame at her sudden turn of fortune. Soon enough,
though, her snug hideaway turns into Grand Central Station. Not only does
Nota (Bob Wilson) start brainstorming Ersilia the fiction, but others show
up to impose their own narratives on her. Feeling tortured, Laspiga the
naval officer (Ambrose Cappuccio) insists on doing the noble thing and
marrying her. (Part of her reply to him—”You’d condemn me to be the very
person I tried to kill”—is one of the more compelling notions in the play.)
Cantavalle the reporter (Keith Surney) returns for more. And Grotti the
consul (Darren Hill) appears, to dredge up some memories Ersilia would much
rather forget. Even Nota’s landlady, Mrs. Onoria, gets in her licks, going
from high dudgeon when she thinks Nota’s moved a common slut into his
apartment to simpering graciousness when she learns that the slut is none
other than the noteworthy woman from the newspaper story.
Through 10/27: Thu-Sat 8 PM, Trap Door Theatre, 1655 W. Cortland, 773-384-0494, trapdoortheatre.com, $20-$25, two for one on Thu.
