No Great Magic

Tonight’s Macbeth has a problem: its Queen Elizabeth is already in costume, and the actor playing the Scottish king has written her a prologue. Greta knows the history is wrong; in this theater, that may be the least unsettling thing.

In a repertory company tucked into Central Park, actors slip between Shakespearean roles and wildly inventive productions. Greta, the company’s sharp-eyed costume mender, has no memory of life before the past year and can barely make herself leave the dressing room. Among the velvet gowns and armor, make-believe is a refuge: the distant past feels like a place to visit, not a hungry darkness waiting to swallow her. But when a company makes a habit of bringing other times to life, where does the stage end—and what might it awaken in Greta?

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