The Notebooks Of Leonardo Da Vinci Is Revived Three Decades After Its Premiere
Movement and music unite to deliver a poetic glimpse into the mind of history's ultimate Renaissance man in Mary Zimmerman's The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci-one of the most popular works in Goodman Theatre history-in a major revival nearly 30 years after its premiere. The acclaimed director/adapter once again directs her work featuring a cast of eight as "Leonardo"-including Adeoye, Christiana Clark, Christopher Donahue (who appeared in the original production), Kasey Foster, Cruz Gonzalez-Cadel, John Gregorio, Anthony Irons and Wai Yim.
"It's an honor to revisit this masterwork by Mary Zimmerman-the one that catapulted her distinguished career-that only gets better, richer and more mature over time," said Artistic Director Robert Falls. "I'm particularly excited for a new generation of audiences to experience the work's wit and charm, as well as the poetic, meditative power for which it's become known over the decades. We warmly welcome this extraordinary cast and creative team-a few of whom were there at the beginning-to give this exquisite piece a new life."
Zimmerman created The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci from 5,000 of the legendary Italian scientist/philosopher's unbound surviving pages-written between 1475 and 1519 in his signature backwards handwriting, read by using a mirror. All of the spoken text in the performance is taken from his notebooks and various treatises on topics ranging from anatomy to love, botany to painting, engineering to dreams.
"What Leonardo demonstrates in all his work and life-and what I think is so useful to us now more than ever-is a type of radical attentiveness. Every part of the world enchanted him. Attention to the available, natural world is so far from how most of us conduct ourselves, lost as we now are within electronic simulacrums of manipulated, constructed realities. But when we stay awake-alive and present-to the miraculous all around us, our lives are infinitely enriched," said adapter/director Mary Zimmerman. "It's always a profound experience to return to a work after so long, and this piece is very dear to my heart, very personal. Most of my work is literary, based in ancient and often fanciful stories. My mother was an English professor, and I sometimes think all my work is due to her. But my father was a physicist, and The Notebooks belongs to him."
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci's Goodman debut in 1993 in the intimate 100-seat Studio Series (at the Art Institute of Chicago) was hailed as "a beautiful, beguiling and absolutely brilliant piece of work" (Chicago Tribune) and "an indisputable masterpiece in both concept and realization" (Chicago Sun-Times). The production became a highlight of Lincoln Center's 1994 "Serious Fun! Festival," hailed as "the most exhilarating theater I've seen in years" (New York Daily News); was revived at the Goodman in 1997; and appeared in an extended run Off-Broadway and at theaters across the country.
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci appears February 11 - March 20.