About the Play:

Sympathetic Magic is a highly imaginative and affecting full-length drama by Lanford Wilson. While studying the universe, an astrophysicist, makes a discovery which holds the promise of upsetting all the theories of quantum physics – changing the way we look at the universe. The diverse characters are an eclectic group of brilliant thinkers, including a social anthropologist, an Episcopalian priest, a sculptress. Sympathetic Magic questions relationships in a world of uncertainty and changing realities.

Sympathetic Magic is about an astronomer who, at the time he discovers his wife is pregnant, stumbles upon a spectacular discovery. Liz Barnard is a celebrated anthropologist studying West Coast gangs for behaviour similar to African tribes. Her son, Don, is a homosexual Episcopal minister whose parishioners are poor and many sick with AIDS. Liz's daughter, Barbara, is a gifted sculptress whose current breakthrough show launches a stellar career. Barbara lives with Ian, a brilliant young astronomer and popular university professor who, along with his colourful colleague Mickey, stumbles on a discovery at the edge of the universe which seems to call into question all the laws of physics. They want to study the find further, but the chairman of their department, Carl Conklin White, a by-the-book administrator, snatches up this startling find before all the facts are in. Along with this discovery, Ian and Barbara find that despite all precautions, Barbara is pregnant. Having agreed to no children, Barbara does not want the baby, but Ian has new thoughts about children and carrying on the human race. The mysteries of the universe and of human and artistic creation begin to mix for Ian and his friends. But when Barbara has an abortion, Ian becomes a person he never expected, and in front of friends and family, he attacks Barbara. His actions change everyone around him, mirroring the change in life when discovery leads the way.

Sympathetic Magic premiered in 1997 Off-Broadway at the Second Stage Theatre in New York City and won the 1997 Obie Award for best play. Since then the play had a critically acclaimed West Coast premiere in 2002 at El Portal Theatre in North Hollywood. While the play is rarely performed professionally, it has been mounted by colleges and community theatres.

Cast: 3 female, 5 male

What people say:

"Lanford Wilson's Sympathetic Magic is the most intelligent and engagingly intellectual theatre piece since Tom Stoppard's Arcadia." — Drama-Logue

"Lanford Wilson's idiosyncratic Sympathetic Magic is his best play yet … the rare play you WANT … chock-full of ideas, incidents, witty or poetic lines, scientific and philosophical argument … you'll find your intellectual faculties racing." — New York Magazine

"Probably not since Tom Stoppard's Hapgood have we had such a genial course in the foothills of advanced physics as we got this week at the world premiere of Lanford Wilson's Sympathetic Magic. I was distinctly entertained by it, and mightily intrigued." — New York Post

"The mystery of the unexplored universe and the mystery of artistic creation begin to revolve around the more familiar mystery of life on earth and why we keep reproducing it ... Wilson has made the dark matter in human beings tangible; particularly in the scientist, whom we come to like and understand before he does something monstrous, and who remains understandable – and no monster – afterwards. The script is like a fully notated score, next to which most new plays are cursory lead sheets." — Village Voice

"Sympathetic Magic is about the big stuff – life, death, the universe and everything in between. But even while tackling everything from astrophysics to AIDS, playwright Lanford Wilson's examination of the 'Grand Plan' is also very funny." — The News (Maple Ridge, B.C)

About the Playwright:

Lanford Wilson (1937-2011) was one of the most distinguished American playwrights of the late 20th century. He was instrumental in drawing attention to Off-Off Broadway, where his first works were staged in the mid-1960s. He was also among the first playwrights to move from that milieu to renown on wider stages, ascending to Off Broadway, and then to Broadway, within a decade of his arrival in New York. His work has also long been a staple of regional theaters throughout the United States. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1980, was elected in 2001 to the Theater Hall of Fame, and in 2004 was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.