“Pamplona”

Highly Recommended ***** Last May, as a member of the press, on the opening night of “Pamplona”, we were witness to an actor, in a one-man show, failing to recall the lines of the script. That actor was Stacy Keach, a veteran, who I have seen in many productions ( as well as films and TV), and after several minutes of hearing him repeat lines and move about the stage as if he was lost,  Robert Falls, the director of the show, and Keach’s good friend, stopped the show. He had Keach taken off the stage, and announced that there was something wrong.  Later, we found out that Keach had suffered a mild a heart attack. We were told that the run was over and that we would be informed if ( and when) Jim McGrath’s biting story of Ernest Hemingway’s search for a story, locked in a hotel room in Pamplona, Spain, October 11th , 1959.

Keach is back, and he is wonderful! There is no question that his health is back to normal. In fact, he may be even stronger than he was in the past. As a survivor of a heart attack myself, I know that making certain changes have influenced my life-style changes, and I find that even five years later, I feel more youthful that prior to the incident that changed my life. The set (Kevin Depinet) has been on hold all these months and then reconstructed in the Goodman’s Owen Theatre ( the smaller, black box venue) to resemble the hotel suite in the Gran Hotel La Perla, where Hemingway found solace and quiet as he wrote.

He has just won  the Pulitzer Prize and is of the mind that the public will expect even more from him now. “After the prize, comes the pressure”, as he rethinks his life and how he became the writer that he was. Watching the things that people did around him and then recreating them into what he felt were better characters and incidents. It is five years since winning the award and Look Magazine has hired him to do a special story. The story is about the Matadors of Spain, in particular, Pamplona!  He is getting older, his health failing him, his mind, a little distant from reality and as the story goes on, we find that his fourth marriage is about to fail. He is also being pursued by the FBI as he has been a sympathizer with the people of Spain and of course is anti-Castro.

His hotel room is huge and there is evidently a neighbor who complains about the music that Hemingway plays, and yet, will not move to another room, even when it is offered to him. Hemingway feels that this is either an FBI agent, or perhaps, Hoover himself. His assistant is in the hotel in another room and often calls him to keep in touch with his needs so that he can make his deadline with the article, which he just cannot seem to get! Part of what takes place is Hemingway looking back at his parents and grandparents lives. Just when it appears that he is about to take a road he should not, the spark returns!

During the almost 90 minutes ( no intermission), we get a deep insight into the life of one of Oak Park’s famed citizens. There are wonderful slides projected on the walls (Adam Flemming) that are actual photos of him and those he speaks about. The lighting  ( Jesse Klug) is designed to create moods, so that when Hemingway is on to something, they are brighter and when he is deep in melancholy, they are dimmer. Beautifully thought out. The original music ( Michael Roth) is sheer magic as we watch the man come to life ( Keach is sheer perfection, playing a role that might have been written for him). Falls and Keach promised us that the show would return and that we would be amazed at the story and the production. He was right!

“Pamplona” will continue at The Goodman Theatre located at  170 N. Dearborn Ave. thru  August 19th with performances as follows:

Tuesdays  7:30 p.m.

Wednesdays  7:30 p.m.

Thursdays  7:30 p.m.

Fridays  8 p.m.

Saturdays  8 p.m.

Sundays  2 p.m.

Tickets range from $25-$90 and can be purchased at the box office, by calling 312-443-3829 or online at www.GoodmanTheatre.org/Pamplona

Special Accessibility performances:

August 12th open-captioned

August  15th ASL Interpreted

August 19th, Touch Tour  at 12:30 for the 2 p.m. performance

same performance will be audio described

More info, visit www.GoodmanTheatre.org/Access

To see what others are saying, visit www.theatreinchicago.com, go to Review Round-Up and click at “Pamplona”