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:
Since it sounds unflattering to Heche, how did he get the rights to her autobiography?
It's parody. He never actually quotes her autobiography at length...most of it is his own writing based on the work.
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