The Illusion (Tony Kushner from Pierre Corneille's L'Illusion Comique)

One of Kushner's early works, this adaptation of the 17-century orignal play combines romance and tragedy with a heavy strain of magic in order to explore the boundaries between the real and the illusory. Set in the cave of a magician, it opens with Pridamant searching for the sorceress in order to obtain her help to locate his son, whom he had banished from his household 15 years prior for being too caught up on his fancies. In answer to Pridamant's request, she presents him with 3 scenes, each featuring his son. In each illusion, his son has a different name, and each time the son is seen working through the travails of being a penniless man and of love. By the 3rd scene, the son is revealed to be a cad, just in time to be killed by his lovers' husband. As Pridamant bewails his loss, Aleandre the magician reveals that indeed they have been watching the son's life, but with this catch: the son is a working actor in Paris , and the three illusions were all scenes fr plays on which he acted. Rather than being dead, he was indeed alive and working in Paris.
This embedded explanation doesn't filly account for everything the audience had observed. Consequently, we are given (at least) three ways to understand what we have seen.
First, we accept the initial narrative that a magician is allowing Pridamant to view retrospectively the past 15 years of his son's life. Second, we believe the magician's last minute story: the son is an actor, and we've been watching his performances. Three, that all three scenes have been performances that have nothing to do with the son; the magician has simply provided some theatrical scenes to fulfill the father's wish and to take his coins. He has been duped, as has the audience. Clues to the third possibility: the magician's servant moves back and forth between the two settings; one of the scenes' characters returns to the cave; father cannot remember the son's name, so how do we believe that he recognizes his face; and, most poignantly, the magician mentions that the roads were muddy enough that spring to keep anyone from traveling to Paris. That is, the magician's ruse worked because she was certain the father's curiosity had been satisfied and he would not make the effort to reunite with his son.
In the end, the play explores how we desire to reclaim what is lost--and how much we will fool ourselves into believing we can.

Highly recommend.