Venue: Vancouver East Cultural Centre
Date(s): November 14 - November 25, 2001
Reviewer: Jane Penistan
Kenneth Tynan, the celebrated man of the theatre and
critic, was on the staff of "The New Yorker" from 1958 - 1960. After
working
again in his native England, as literary manager for The National
Theatre, he returned to live in the United States where he continued to
write.
In Emphysema, Janet Munsil presents Tynan with the real and
aging Louise Brooks, and with his fantasy of her as the seductive Lulu
of Pabst's silent film, "Pandora's Box". As the elegant, cigarette
smoking, self-indulgent Tynan, Donald Adams is always graceful,enjoying
his own wit, always intelligent, seduced and seducing, and ultimately
deteriorating physically, but never whining, it is a very clever
aristocratic performance.
Sheila Paterson, as Louise Brooks, the aging invalid star of silent
films, who enjoys a visitor who will laugh, drink and smoke with her,
while she regales with her past exploits is Adams' perfect counterpart.
They enjoy each others' company and share their somewhat salacious
humour and on occasion quarrel violently.
As Lulu, the girl of Brooks' silent film star days, Erin Wells looks
incredibly like the projected old photographs of the star in her
heyday, plays the seduction scenes with Tynan well.
Mara Gottler's costumes are of stellar quality, particularly those of
Lulu. There is a clever parallel drawn between the sad dressing gown
of the aging Brooks and the new cover-up of the fantasy Lulu.
Robert Gardiner has devised an ingenious set. The downstage, furnished
sparsely with a desk a chair and a couch, is the writer's territory.
Upstage is backed by a projection screen divides when needed, to reveal
the fully furnished bed sitting room of Louise Brooks. It is here
that the man is let into the reminiscences and present existence of
the real woman. The uncluttered masculine space is haunted by the
phantom.
This interesting play, directed by Katrina Dunn, has managed the
difficult task of presenting a real woman and real man with a fantasy
character. The play is both fascinating and believable.
© 2001, Jane Penistan