SEARCH
REVIEWS
FEATURES
NEWS
Etcetera and
Short Term Listings
LISTINGS
Broadway
Off-Broadway
NYC Restaurants
BOOKS and CDs
OTHER PLACES
Berkshires
London
California
DC
Philadelphia
Elsewhere
QUOTES
On TKTS
PLAYWRIGHTS' ALBUMS
LETTERS TO EDITOR
FILM
LINKS
MISCELLANEOUS
Free Updates
Masthead
Writing for Us<
A CurtainUp Los Angeles Review
If You Get to Bethlehem, You've Gone Too Far
|
Mom taught me how to die but Dad taught me how to live. --- Mariette Hartley |
Mariette Hartley
(Photo: Ed Krieger) |
Although it's a catchy phrase, its meaning as a title is mysterious. Does the author allude to going all the way back to a birthplace, such as the manger in Bethlehem where Christ was born, and finding that you don't need to dwell there? Maybe something like that.
Hartley is the child of alcoholics. Her father, Paul, is a charming advertising executive, who calls her Trilby and teaches her how to shoot. Her mother, who insists on being called Polly, is a cigarette-smoking beauty who is too miserable and self-absorbed to merit the name of Mother, even if she would accept it.
The low self-esteem instilled by this environment caused Hartley to marry a man who brutalized her. She alludes to her own drinking, two children, a successful career and psychoanalysis but they're trees that flash by the windows of the hellish train that propels Hartley through her life's dark tunnel until she makes that last desperate drive to the convent. Among other things, Mother Dolores counsels her to tell the stories she has bottled up all her life and that's what the play does.
Sometimes it's confusing and the characters, seen through a child's eyes, are portrayed in the simple crayon colors that a child would use, though Hartley is clear and vivid in her interpretations of them. We never really know why Hartley's father calls her Trilby. We're glad she finally gets to call her mother Mom after 30 years of therapy and bonds with her in the final days that lead to her deathbed.
Hartley finds moments of humor in this memoir. One lovely image is that of Mother Dolores receiving Daily Variety in a brown paper wrapper. As playwright, she diminishes the emotional nuances of her characters through focusing on the broad outlines of a life shaped by her childhood's pain culminating in the cathartic release of anger against her father's final choice.
Director Don Eitner never lets his star tip over into melodrama and finds a subtle pulse that reveals the play's heart. He also designed the exceptional set, cardboard cutouts of the dark woods that express the mysteries of childhood and the groves where adults are lost. J. Kent Inasy's lighting design is evocative and precise.
Today Mariette Hartley is an honorary director of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and active in other mental health organizations. She continues to prove her sensitivity and range as an actress. And cheering her on at last Sunday's performance was Mother Dolores, whose smile tells you why she was a movie star, as well as why she's chosen another calling.
|
IF YOU GET TO BETHLEHEM, YOU'VE GONE TOO FAR Playwright: Mariette Hartley Director: Don Eitner Cast: Mariette Hartley Set Design: Don Eitner Lighting Design: J. Kent Inasy Costume Design: Elizabeth Cox Sound Design: Marc Perlman Running Time: One hour 40 minutes, no intermission Running Dates: Through April 30, 2006. Where:. The Whitefire Theatre, 13500 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks, Reservations: (818) 990-2324 Reviewed by Laura Hitchcock on April 2. |
The Internet Theatre Bookshop "Virtually Every Play in the World" --even out of print plays
The new annual to dress up every Broadway lover's coffee table
The Internet Theatre Bookshop "Virtually Every Play in the World" --even out of print plays