Philadelphia's Arden Theatre Company staged the play 16 years ago, and more recently there was a high-tech version on Broadway. Now Seurat, his fictional great-grandson George, and the colorful troupe of period Parisians are back at the Arden - this time, thanks to digital magician Jorge Cousineau, technologically enhanced.
As I took my seat, I wondered, has the magic survived? Would the evocation of the creative process remain thrilling? Because in truth, that's what I most wanted from this play. In 1984, the end of Act I had provided one of my most memorable theatrical moments, and I wanted to relive it.
I needn't have worried. The Arden's Act I finale is different, but just as brilliant. Instead of bits of scenery sliding together (1984), director Terrence J. Nolen has the Seurat character assemble a tableau vivant while he chants his mantra about order, design, balance, and tension.
Act I tells us that making art is hard work (making good art is even harder). Seurat spends most of his time doggedly sketching and daubing, laying down pointillist dots on a see-through canvas. He's so solitary, so consumed by his art, that what we now call a "personal life" can be no more than wishful thinking.
Act II, which I barely remembered from 26 years ago, becomes in the Arden production a powerful contrast to Seurat's obsession. It reminds us that art-making, at least at the top of the pyramid, has changed dramatically from the late 19th century.
For one thing, it has become more technology-dependent, as Cousineau's imaginative interpretations of young George's spectacular video "chromolumes" indicate. Artists today sometimes require specialist collaborators to program and manage the electronic images, which in George's case are extrapolations of Seurat's tiny colored specks.
