THE CHESS PLAYER Reimagines Classic Tale at Edinburgh Fringe
By: BWW News Desk Jul. 27, 2017
A battle rages inside prisoner's mind as he struggles against insanity while held in solitary confinement in a Nazi jail. After stealing a book of chess matches, he divides his conscious self into two feuding chess masters.
The Chess Player is a contemporary reimagining of a classic tale written by Jewish Austrian Stefan Zweig when he was escaping the horrors of Nazism. Award-winning US actor and director Richard McElvain's interpretation of the story is all the more disturbing in a world where the Far Right is once again raising its head.
The play addresses some deep human experiences. After escaping his captors the central character finds himself at a chess master tournament. Testing himself, and on the edge of a volcano of madness, he challenges the greatest chess player in the world to a match. The Chess Player is a saga of survival ruined by hubris. The production is underscored by a rich and complex soundscape created by Larry Buckley.
McElvain said: "Using Zweig's brilliant story as a springboard, the play explores the power of illusion and how it distinguishes us from all other beasts, how it frees us and at the same time traps us."
This world premiere is based on Zweig's classic short story, published as The Royal Game in 1941 while he was living in Bath and London before moving to New York, and then Brazil. In 1942, following a major Axis success, Zweig was overcome by despair at the prospect of Nazi triumph, and he and his wife committed suicide.
McElvain has received the Elliot Norton Award (Boston's Tonys) and The Independent Reviewers of New England Award for his performance of another one man show, Conor McPherson's Saint Nicolas. He has also twice played Tartuffe in Tartuffe, Macbeth in Macbeth, Galileo in Brecht's Galileo, Harry Cohn in Angels in America Parts I and II, and George in Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe among many other roles. McElvain has also appeared in films with Jennifer Lawrence, Cher, Winona Ryder, and Bob Hoskins.
McElvain has created successful stage adaptations of the works of Edgar Allen Poe, Washington Irving, O Henry and Saki, as well as his own adaptation of Sophocles' Antigone in which he played Creon. He has translated and directed four plays of Moliere.
IF YOU GO:
THE CHESS PLAYER
Venue: C primo, Lodge No 1, Hill Street, EH2 3JP (Venue 41)
Dates: 2-28 August
Time: 12:00 noon. Duration: 75 minutes
Guidance: 12+
Tickets: £8.50-£10.50 / concessions £6.50-£8.50
Box office: 0845 260 1234 / www.CtheFestival.com/2017/the-chess-player or 0131 226 0000 /
Group: Theatre Omnibus
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