Warping time to explore the meaning and value of art
The comedy drama “The Rembrandt,” coming to TheaterWorks Hartford, brings art to life and vice versa.
Jessica Dickey’s play is a creative musing on the meaning and value of art through the ages. It takes a time-warping trip through history, exploring the power of creativity and passion.
“It’s about the enduring provocative power of art,” said the show’s director Maria Mileaf. “It asks big questions about life and art.”
Mileaf stressed that while its various sections may take place in the present day, in 17th century Amsterdam and in Greece in the 8th century B.C., “The Rembrandt” is not a time travel play.
“The protagonist is able to dream his life through other centuries,” Mileaf said. “Nobody watching should be stopping to do the chronological math. We see history through the lens of this character.”
In introductory notes to the script, playwright Jessica Dickey wrote that the play’s “four sections connect like four paintings curated next to each other. Distinct, but connected.”
Since one of the main characters is a security guard in an art gallery, one of the things Mileaf and the cast did during the rehearsal period was to visit the Wadsworth Atheneum and Museum in Hartford, where they were given a private tour of the galleries.
The Wadsworth has even set up a new exhibit, with TheaterWorks as its programming partner, about the museum’s attempts to purchase works by Rembrandt for its permanent collection. “Chasing Rembrandt: The Wadsworth’s Quest for a Rembrandt” is on display from April 20 through July 23.
Mileaf has been in Hartford before, helping direct and shape Sharon Washington’s autobiographical one-woman show “Feeding the Dragon.” Mileaf was
involved in several stages of the development of the show about Washington’s childhood living in a branch of the New York Public Library, where her father stoked the furnaces, including its adaptation into an audio version for Audible.
Mileaf ’s other big Connecticut connection is attending Yale University as an undergraduate in the 1980s, studying literature.
She directed a student production of “Phaedre” that was designed by Neil Patel, her future husband. Though their theater careers are largely separate, they still work together when they can, including on “The Rembrandt.”
While she has only worked with one of the cast members before — the busy character actor Bill Buell who plays the Greek poet Homer — Mileaf said it’s different with the creative team.
“I’ve worked with all the designers before, and we’ve all worked together before,” she said.
Mileaf finds that helpful and comforting since this production is her first time in a professional rehearsal situation since COVID. She is engaged in a number of long-gestated projects that she’s been doing through Zoom and other means.
She doesn’t want to give away any surprises, but Mileaf said the show has special design effects, some suggested by the playwright’s written insistence that the show take place in “a large, spacious room with walls that can change color” to reflect not only the different settings and time periods but key colors in the palette of the Dutch painter considered one of the most important artists in the history of the world.
Mileaf said “The Rembrandt” was definitely written for the theater and needs to be experienced in the theater. She likes the narrative breadth and emotional depth that can be brought to well-composed live theater events.
While she said it can get dark, “pain sometimes brings the best laughter. Laughter is more wellearned when coming from a deeper place. It’s all provoked by giving time to experiencing art.”
“The Rembrandt” runs April 21 through May
14 at TheaterWorks Hartford, 233 Pearl St., Hartford. Performances are Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. with Saturday matinees at 4 p.m. on April 29, May 6 and 13. $25-$65. twhartford.org.