The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 15.1530 Monday, 16 August 2004
From: Richard Burt <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Saturday, 14 Aug 2004 19:47:34 -0400
Subject: Booth Variations Play
Family Affair, Notorious and Historic
By BEN BRANTLEY
The dialogue - between master and apprentice, genius and imitator - is
as old as art itself. But for a few exciting moments this eternal
conversation feels brand new in "The Booth Variations," the seriously
ambitious mixed-media work that opened last night at the 59E59 theater
complex.
The participants in this exchange are two 19th-century Shakespearean
actors, Junius Booth and his son Edwin, and they are both portrayed by
the same man, Todd Cerveris. There is Mr. Cerveris in the flesh as the
young Edwin, watching his father's performance as Lear from the wings.
And then there is the phantom version of Mr. Cerveris as Booth p