Archive for the ‘theatre’ Category
Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library
I don’t think we’ve ever seen Stockhausen syndrome quite like the relationship between philosopher Hannah Arendt and her Nazi jailor Karl in Jenny Lyn Bader’s Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library. Arendt, as played by a very effecting Ella Dershowitz, has a mind like quicksilver. As soon as she observes jailor Karl’s ego needs to pull rank, she defers and reigns in her erudition in exchange for survival. Karl, once somewhat of a student himself, is in awe of her and we see his struggles to follow orders clash with his own instinctual curiosity. What can a good Nazi do in the hands of such a fine German mind, never mind that she’s a Jew?
Her crime it seems was to have been seen copying images of antisemitism from papers for a group who sends them abroad to advertise what’s really going on in Germany. She is aghast at hearing this…her pure research is what took her to the library and nothing else.
Hannah must balance a nature in pursuit of truth with a writer’s talent for bending the narrative in order to save her own skin. After all, she certainly was not uninterested in Jewish issues and Zionism as she tries to convince Karl. In fact, quite the contrary. Her deception is so sweet…she has an authentic love of German thinking and wouldn’t think of involving her ex-lover Heidegger for help. For every turn Karl makes to accuse her of a misdeed, she does a sharp right or left turn, leaving him in the dust. If she had any crime, it was neglecting her own research to hunt around through the files for a recipe for her mother’s favorite cake. The care and intelligence with which she describes the ingredients and making of the dessert is the same thoroughness she puts into her political theories.
Hannah has one visitor, Drew Hirshfeld, whose character Erich is symbolic of so many Jews who could not believe that their beliefs that they were true Germans meant nothing to the Nazis. He is a lawyer and has heard of her plight through the inner circles. Hannah is surprised that he has come or else pretends. Either way she is not excited to have him represent her, neither wanting her affiliation with anything Zionistic to be recognized nor believing he can do anything to help. He has the shadow of death all over him as he speaks of other lawyers who have been brought down while still trying to convince her and mostly himself that he will survive.
The environment is frightening, yet the humorous banter and cigarette sharing become between Karl and Hannah, gives relief. Through it we feel a razor thin light of hope. Karl has a child of his own and is not unfeeling to Hannah’s concern for her mother also imprisoned. Something stirs between them…perhaps it is their love of dancing or the way Hannah finishes the German folk poem Karl had begun reciting; both touchstones of their common humanity.
The acting is terrific in this play and the simple prison cell set serves as a blank slate for the plethora of ideas that playwright Bader make dance within the walls of the cell.
The play produced by Luna Stage is running at 59 East 59th Theaters until November 10th.
Renee Taylor on Dieting and Other Habits
Renee Taylor has had the life I might have had if my acting career had been laced with the brio her personality; my father had been more of a gambler instead of a Sunday craps shooter and my mother had encouraged instead of competed with me when singing Clair de Lune at the piano. With the completely opposite set of life circumstances, Renee Taylor pushed through her Bklyn/Bronx Wexler family of origin and in fact used it and its effect on her to become the charming, humorous comedienne and writer that she still is today.
Her new one woman show, My Life On A Diet ( based on her book My Life on a Diet: Confessions of a Hollywood Diet Junkie) at Theatre at St Clement’s written with husband, and creative partner for 53 years, Joe Bologna, is sheer delight. When she first appears on Harry Feiner’s stage set which resembles a 99- cent store version of Joan Rivers’ rococo living room, you wouldn’t be so far off if you thought it was Dame Edna Everage. Taylor is a sturdy eighty- something with if not little girl voice, a soft spoken New Yorkease, that compels you to move forward in your chair so as not to miss a moment of her story craft and superb comic timing.
Sitting comfortably at her desk, Ms. Taylor starts to recount the diets of her life, slicing them into her yearnings for stardom, her mostly good and some bad luck and her commitment to being full alive. The visual projections of her diets and of her family and friends help open the story of her life. We hear about her endless auditions, Marilyn Monroe’s insecurities, Lee at the Studio, and a myriad of survival jobs, one becoming the signature piece which helped launch her television career. Taylor is an inventive creature with a deep ability to laugh and respect herself at the same time. When she can’t brag personally, she mentions people who admired her work, like Jack Paar, Perry Como and Barbara Streisand and all of America who watched her as Fran Drescher’s mom on The Nanny. Every story leads back to her life- long fat issues and her attempts at resolving the problem with ideas as bizarre as drinking only Cristal champagne or abstaining from everything except autumn air.
Her husband Joe Bolgona died in 2017. Together they wrote and acted in wonderful comedies like Lovers and Other Strangers. By her re-telling of their sweet courtship, they surely were really Made For Each Other.
Clearly, Ms.Taylor doesn’t have to prove a thing. She’s already there. But she is such a gifted artist with a great willingness to share her infectious spirit. Altogether, this makes the story of a disappearing show biz world and a young woman’s dream to be part of it, a must for anyone who wants to think back on the past and laugh in the present.
They Promised Her the Moon
When they go low, we go high,” are words that could have easily been spoken by Jerrie Cobb (Amanda Quaid) in Laurel Ollstein’s new play They Promised her The Moon. The play tells the relatively unknown story of mid- Western Cobb, a girl with a speech defect and a critical mother, but a dream that proved stronger than her limitations.
Cobb’s dad (John Leonard Thompson) was a pilot and after flying with him at age ten, Cobb was hooked. With his encouragement, she became pro and broke records in speed, distance and absolute altitude. Still, with so much discrimination against women pilots, she struggled to find work. When famed pilot Jackie Cochran, (Andrus Nichols), considered top female aviator in the world, created the Mercury 13 program to train female astronauts, Cobb’s luck changed. She out tested everyone including her male colleagues in the Mercury 7 program, but was not permitted to go up because women were not considered The Right Stuff. John Glenn testified against hiring women for the space program and so Russia got there first with a lesser qualified Valentina Tereshkova.
This story of strength and resilience is beautifully told in this insightful and humorous play. Cobb had to compete not only against men but her own gender; Cochran, at fifty-five was too old to be an astronaut and consciously worked against Cobb’s success. She is brittle and tough, but we understand what she had to fight against, too.
The performances are all top notch, some playing several characters. John Leonard Thompson as Cobb’s pilot father and Congressman is a quiet sensitive man and wholly believable as a father who can see a future in his daughter’s eyes. Edmund Lewis, Polly Mckie and John Russell are all terrific with a wide range.
Amanda Quaid, our pilot hero, who discovers romantic love but chucks it for the skies, is so good at bringing an awkward young woman into existence in front of our eyes. When her career takes the obvious fall it must from not being permitted to become an astronaut, she doesn’t give up…she just moves…to the Amazon where she works with tribes and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1981.
Ms. Ollstein, an original member of Actors’ Gang in LA, has a great ear for real talk and imbues the story with sensitivity and humor.
As directed by Producing and Artistic Director of the Miranda Company, Valentina Fratti brings this too little known story beautifully to life. Graham Kindred’s set and lighting design is simply perfect.
Hopefully, this wonderful show, having run its course at St. Clement’s will soon find a new home. It deserves it.
notjustaboutsex 