“Tremendous elegance and intrigue in this stellar 25-member ensemble cast led by captivating performances of Geraint Wyn Davies and Gordon S. Miller…

Playwright Eduardo De Filippo has crafted a fascinating story that explores the line between reality and illusion. It begs the question, do people mean what they say and say what they mean?

Get ready for a visual treat with Lorenzo Savoini’s stunning set design depicting the luxurious Metropole’s seaside porch.”

“Artistic director Antoni Cimolino has conjured up a sophisticated and intellectually stimulating production that balances daft comedy with poignancy. Like the best of tricks, it catches you off guard….

the cast are uniformly excellent in a production that is as sumptuous as this new playhouse.”

“Under the assured direction of artistic director Antoni Cimolino, this production proves that great theatre is no illusion…

Grand Magic was written in the years after the end of the Second World War and scholars have read it as an indictment of fascism and the delusions it foisted on the Italian people. As an American, I found it hard not to see echoes of what is happening in the United States, where millions of people deny observable reality and slavishly follow an amoral grifter and craven politicians who traffic in nothing but lies.”

“…it’s not about intense stagecraft or special effects. It’s about a magician, and not necessarily about the magic the magician does, per se…
it’s much more about the façade of the magician, how they present themselves…

It’s got a lot of the emotional depth of Lear and Casey and Diana, and a lot of the comedy of Spamalot. It’s a human drama brought to life spectacularly onstage. It encompasses all the emotional highs and lows of the Stratford Festival, which I just think is really cool.”

“…some the finest acting you will see at the Festival this season…

The role of the magician Otto Marvuglia is complex on many levels and requires an actor of the highest calibre. That it has in Geraint Wyn Davies.

It is simply amazing how Wyn Davies can make us feel such sympathy for such a charlatan as Marvuglia even as we watch him ever so subtly metamorphose right before our eyes from the saviour of a damsel in distress to a dangerously manipulative parasite.”

“… Geraint Wyn Davies finds a perfect balance between his character’s desperate opportunism and an underlying compassion…

A worthy addition to the director’s body of work, Grand Magic is a must-see production. From its its immensely talented cast to its thought-provoking – and often side-splitting – writing, Grand Magic delivers a truly enchanting experience, leaving the audience both spellbound and, perhaps, a little unsettled.”

“… this is a tale about the magic of the mind — the illusion of delusion…

The ensemble cast never misses a beat and is uniformly excellent (despite some odd choices to have certain characters sport a distinct New York accent). Davies and Miller, in particular, draw on the various facets of their world-weary characters: hard-edged, pitiful, lost, clinging to their illusions to cope with a reality which they cannot accept.”

“Calogero [Miller’s character] is very much like the great “gulls” you find in Shakespeare such as Malvolio or Parolles, men with huge character flaws who become the butt of elaborate jokes.

But his deluded character slowly becomes the primary one here – De Filippo following him through comedy to tragedy for two more acts as he struggles with the paradox of how to hold onto his love for his wife while relinquishing his illusions about her. Miller depicts all this magnificently.”