“Princess Ivona” reviewed by Jacob Davis

[rating=5]If you met somebody you just didn’t understand, would you take that as a challenge? Would you be able to define what it means to “win?” The people in Princess Ivona would. Written in 1938 by the Polish satirical novelist Witold Gombrowicz, Ivona, Princess of Burgundia, anticipated the absurdist dramas that would become more common in Eastern Europe following World War II. In this lean adaptation at Trap Door, directed by Jenny Beacraft, we see how the presence of a mostly non-verbal woman at the royal court draws out the insecurities of everyone around her, making her an object of hatred for doing literally nothing at all.
Prince Phillip (Keith Surney) is a highly refined but spoiled young man whose parents (Bill Gordon and Manuela Rentea) preside over a quite out-of-touch royal court. They are first seen excitedly taking selfies with a beggar they have condescended to give a few coins to and generally laze about looking for ways to amuse themselves. It is while out searching for a companion for the night that Prince Phillip first sees Ivona (Laura Nelson), whose guardians berate her for having no remotely acceptable marriage prospects at all, and seeming not to care or even be aware. The prince is astonished to meet a person who seems so aloof, and decides to marry her on the spot. This rather appalls the entire court, but they quickly decide to indulge his fancy until he gets bored, rather than provoke him to double-down. Still, they are all badly rattled by Ivona’s indifference, and believe that she is judging them for all their secret shames.
It wouldn’t have been Gombrowicz’s intention at the time in exactly this framing, but it is hard for a modern audience to see Ivona in Beacraft’s adaptation and not think she might be neurodivergent. She does respond positively to Phillip sometimes, such as when he is being playful instead of trying to impress her, and when Phillip defends her from an old man who had staked an interest in her before because he appreciated that she didn’t require any emotional labor. That she can speak clearly at times is why the royal court believes that her usual silence is meant as a snub. And part of what they all find baffling and alluring about her is that she is afraid of them because they monologue loudly and wear bright clothes with lots of perfumes, and not because she understands their political authority, or so it seems to them. Laura Nelson gives a star performance, not exaggerated or self-pitying, but simply allowing Ivona to have naturalistic reactions to the ridiculous people surrounding her. And the rest of the cast are hilariously outrageous, eloquent and flexible in their clowning. Rachel Sypniewski and Syd Genco deck them out in flashy but not wholly otherworldly costumes and make-up.
Princess Ivona was written at a time when monarchies with direct political power had recently existed in Europe and Gombrowicz’s satire could be taken at face value. For us, interpreting Ivona’s Frank Grimes-like journey is a bit more open-ended, although Beacraft provides us with some clear pointers. The royal court lives in a bubble, but they have a keen sense of what they feel like they ought to be doing and, ironically, how they would act if they were characters in a different sort of play. At one point when she contemplates killing Ivona, the queen worries that she doesn’t look disheveled enough to seem tragically mad instead of just spiteful, even though she’s only performing for herself. But nobody can figure out what opera Ivona is in, and they aren’t willing to look enough outside of themselves to try to understand. Sometimes it can be a bit hard to find direct resonance with mid-last-century Eastern European satires, but in this one’s case, everything still feels very modern.

Princess Ivona will continue at Trap Door Theatre, 1655 W Cortland Ave, Chicago, thru February 18, at the following times:

Thursdays: 8:00 pm
Fridays: 8:00 pm
Saturdays: 8:00 pm
Running time is eighty minutes with no intermission.

Tickets are $25 with 2 for 1 admission on Thursdays. Visit Trap Door Theatre or call 773-384-0494 or email boxofficetrapdoor@gmail.com

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