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A CurtainUp Review
The Lovesong Of Alfred J Hitchcock
By Elyse Sommer
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"I am. A quiet, family man: wife, daughter; a couple of Highland terriers; church on Sundays. Every night, in bed by nine. Decent. A Jimmy Stewart sort of character. Except for my figure of course. . .And I make my pictures for decent people. For law-abiding Jimmy Stewart sort of people. . ." — Hitchcock. |
Martin Miller as Alfred Hitchcock
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He became a household name as the host of Alfred Hitchcock Presents which ran from 1955 to 1962 and the many pungent quips attributed to him. Though he died more than three decades ago, film buffs are sure to have seen at least some of his famously twisty thrillers on DVDs or tv channels that stream golden oldies. Some with regularly pop up include Vertigo, Stranger On a Train, North by Northwest, Suspicion, Rear Window and, of course, Psycho with its legendary shower scene. No wonder 59e59's Theater A was packed at the performance I attended. Who would want to miss a chance to look inside the mind of the master of the spine tingling suspense genre. Surely it must be fascinating to find out more about the pudgy man behind the camera and see how his personal history influenced his work!
Given Juliet Shilllingford's stark gray set— a playing area bare except for the director's chair backed by a wall that looks like a film frame — you would not be remiss to expect some excerpts from Hitchcock's oeuvre to be projected on that screen-like backdrop to enhance the bare bones set.
But then there's the title that seems to link a potential bio drama to T.S. Eliot's "J. Alfred Prudock" to something more poetic. Not so, according to David Rudkin, who originally wrote The Lovesong of Alfred J Hitchcock as a radio play in 1993 and adapted it as a touring production for the New Perspectives company twenty years later. As Rudkin explains, Eliot had already published his poem ten years before the radio play went on the air and because "the resonance of name and character are uncanny" he acknowledges Eliot's Alfred "as an obscure background presence as I imagined mine."
That said, The Lovesong of Alfred J Hitchcock now being presented as part of 59E59's annual Brits Off-Broadway series is strictly Mr. Rudkin's concept. However, Rudkin's style hardly fits a traditional story telling convention. Since the production arrives on our shores with the same creative team and is buoyed by praises for its adventurous form by both audiences and critics, I wish I could join these huzzahs. However, call it poetic or just too pretentiously expressionistic, I think this is likely to be pretty heavy sledding for any but the most dedicated Hitchcock aficionados. That includes me. It didn't put me to sleep as was the case for several people sitting near me did. Nor did I have a problem following this lovesong's content. My problem was in getting really caught up by Mr. Rudkin's story telling format.
The first act sees Martin Miller's Hitchcock do a stream-of-consciousness ramble with snatches of words and phrases to indicate his envisioning the look of a film in progress. No complaints about his exhausting, committed performance. Even though he doesn't really resemble Hitchcock, he does catch his persona.
The solitary chair and player does eventually expand to include a desk and three other actors to enliven the people in Hitchcock's past and present. Roberta Kerr is symbolically double cast as his controlling mother and his wife; the first initially appearing as the 5-year-old fatty's pain and guilt inflicting teacher, his priest in his conflicted later in life, and as a character from a film. Tom McHugh is mainly present as one of the screenwriters to whom Hitchcok apparently never gave insufficient credit. He also doubles as a waiter serving a successful adult who's obviously still haunted by the phobias leftover from his difficult childhood.
Yes, the play does get a bit more lively with Ms. Kerr's Emma giving Miller a break as she tries to write the story of her life as his most supportive colleague. That static back wall even flips around to present one somewhat detailed scene. Naturally, that's , the shower scene from Psycho).
If you're interested in a more straightforward biography of the man, there's Daniel Spoto's The Art of Alfred Hitchcock and Patrick Mcgilligan's Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light. Since his work really was his life, the best way to know this master filmmaker is to check out some of his old and still masterful movies.
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The Lovesong Of Alfred J Hitchcock by David Rudkin Directed by Jack McNamara Cast: Martin Miller (Alfred Hitchcock), Roberta Kerr(Alberta Hitchcock, Emma Hitchcocck), Tom McHugh (Screenwriter, Waiter), Anthony Wise(Jesuit Teacher, Priest, Stranger). Set design: Juliet Shillingford Lighting design: Asuza Ono Sound design: Tom Lishman Stage Manager: Mandy Ivory-Castle Running Time: 2 hours, including one intermission From 5/01/14; opening 5/07/14; closing 5/25/14 Tuesday - Thursday at 7 PM; Friday at 8 PM; Saturday at 2 PM & 8 PM; Sunday at 3 PM & 7 PM. Tickets are $70 ($49 for 59E59 Members). Reviewed by Elyse Sommer at 5/06/14 press preview |
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