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Matthew Freeman is a Brooklyn based playwright with a BFA from Emerson College. His plays include THE DEATH OF KING ARTHUR, REASONS FOR MOVING, THE GREAT ESCAPE, THE AMERICANS, THE WHITE SWALLOW, AN INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR, THE MOST WONDERFUL LOVE, WHEN IS A CLOCK, GLEE CLUB, THAT OLD SOFT SHOE and BRANDYWINE DISTILLERY FIRE. He served as Assistant Producer and Senior Writer for the live webcast from Times Square on New Year's Eve 2010-2012. As a freelance writer, he has contributed to Gamespy, Premiere, Complex Magazine, Maxim Online, and MTV Magazine. His plays have been published by Playscripts, Inc., New York Theatre Experience, and Samuel French.

Monday, December 08, 2008

Call Me Anne - Reaction




This past week, I attended a performance of CALL ME ANNE at the Access Theater. Starring Philip Taratula, it's a one-man show based on the autobiography of Anne Heche.

I highly recommend it.

First of all, Taratula is brilliantly gifted and you really should come and see him before he's whisked away to stardom of some sort. There are just so many little moments in the performance that shine, as well as the to-be-expected vigorous moments that characterized any worthwhile one-man. Sure he plays a bunch of parts flawlessly and nailed Heche perfectly...but it's the little things that Taratula does right.

For example, there's a moment when he is, as Anne Heche of course, acting for the camera, taking direction, flirting between takes, and taking a cell phone call from Ellen Degeneres, whom Heche is stringing along. It's so deftly executed that you forget...how...very... hard... it is.

The play itself, though, isn't perhaps the straight up camp tribute/send-up you'd expect. Instead, the play moves between the expected mockery of this self-important starlet, and a rather difficult portrayal of someone who clearly has mental illness, in an industry that either ignores or absorbs this as eccentricity. The post show conversation was, shall we say, spirited.

Best to let you see for yourself. Get some tickets right away.

2 comments:

Joshua James said...

Since it sounds unflattering to Heche, how did he get the rights to her autobiography?

Freeman said...

It's parody. He never actually quotes her autobiography at length...most of it is his own writing based on the work.