Blog Entry #5: Book of Love Review

Craig Donnelly has given us another production as director and writer of "The Book of Love," which purports to be "A New Twist on 'Bewitched,'" undercut somewhat in that the highly-touted "twist" is little more than a reversal of gender. Don't be too quick to criticize the production, though; "Book of Love" has many amusing moments and a heavy emphasis on audience participation which captures the audience well.

The plot is, as the postscript suggests, essentially that of "Bewitched," just transposed into a high-school setting and involving Cole, a male witch (Emanuel Silva) and his female love interest Jewel (Chelsea Ordner). The cast is engaging and enthused, ably delivering their dialogue, especially considering that most of them are freshmen. The running gags don't become too tiresome, and at times the play seems even self-aware in brief displays of post-modernism (one dance interlude prompts one character to exclaim: "Does anyone else hear that music?").

Where the play begins to fall apart is in its plausibility. As the production progressed, one feels the sensation that events are unfolding simply to serve themselves, and there is a notable disjunction between story and action. By the end, one feels that the audience's suspension of disbelief has been punched, kicked, body-slammed, shot in the leg, thrown off the top story of a building, and finally decapitated as the play proclaims that "there can be only one!" It seems as though there is a disturbingly unrealistic context for the characters, so that in the end the message becomes a little drowned in spontaneous dance numbers and throwaway lines.

In summation, an amusing divesion, not bad.


Margaret Hamilton liked it, at least.