Looped

Celebrating 20 years of high quality entertainment for Adelaide theatre-goers, Holden Street Theatres has launched a brand new string to its bow:  the Holden Street Theatre Company Inc. and if this inaugural production is any indication, they have hit the bull’s eye!

Looped is directed by alternately loved and reviled ABC presenter, actor, director and Adelaide’s unofficial Arts Ambassador Peter Goers OAM, who has a rich history with Holden Street Theatres, having directed their first play, California Suite by Neil Simon. Turning back the hands of time, Martha Lott and Rob Cusenza featured in the show, and in a nod to its beginnings are performers in Looped. Chris Asimos has also been a regular performer and part of the rich tapestry of Holden Street’s 20 often ground breaking years.

Looped is the first play to launch the new Holden Street Theatre Company Inc. Written by award winning Matthew Lombardo, it stars Martha Lott as Tallulah Bankhead, Chris Asimos as Danny Miller and Rob Cusenza as technician Steve. It is based on a true story, set in 1965, when Hollywood bad girl, always inebriated Tallulah Bankhead is called back to re-record, or loop a single line in her infamous last film role, ‘Die! Die! My Darling’; and die it did! The play had three Broadway runs and the first was ironically closed down after barely 30 performances. After significant rewriting, and when Valerie Harper who featured in all three versions as Bankhead was nominated for a Tony Award, it was re-launched to the play we see today.

Running at just under 120 minutes that whizz by, such is the power of the performances, it is based on a real life event where Bankhead needed eight hours to redub that one line of dialogue - "And so Patricia, as I was telling you, that deluded rector has in literal effect closed the church to me”. Bankhead’s brash, purposefully shocking personality is the fulcrum of the play, but her battle of wills with film editor Danny Miller results in a mutual sharing of human guilt and exposure at its most poignant.

Danny is played by Asimos. His performance is a mixture of powerful determination and crippling vulnerability. His stance is both powerful as he comes toe to toe with Bankhead, and equally convincing as guilt peels back the layers of a man whose life is wracked with self-loathing. His accent is perfect, his diction is clear and wonderfully nuanced. He is entirely believable, transporting the audience into the vortex of his ever increasing frustration.

Cusenza as Steve is a well-regarded actor who has been seen extensively in professional and non-professional leading roles. The timbre of his voice is rich and entirely apt in what is an important ‘voice-over’ role.

It is difficult to describe Lott’s performance without resorting to a stream of superlatives. Already well-regarded as an actor, artistic director and entrepreneur, Lott simply ‘becomes’ Bankhead. From her first entrance when she bursts onto the stage, her slightly arched, clearly inebriated persona struts, demands, abuses and growls using a lower register of a very ‘worn’ woman. She looks glamorous in a gown by Judith Branford, dissolute and debauched, and equally silent film star glamorous. Her gestures are big, she commands the space and later in the play reveals a quietly piteous woman who one almost wants to comfort and hug. Lott convincingly becomes the very the acclaimed star of Jezebel, The Little Foxes and Private Lives, but most of all she is the consummate actor who allows us to see that Bankhead spent her life creating her own, often heart breaking story.

Always ‘press ready’ people rarely, if ever saw the real Tallulah and Lott ensures that the audience clearly understands why. She uses consummate skill delivering brilliant one liners such as “I’m not afraid of dying, I just don’t want to be there when it happens”. In fact, if I have any criticism, it is with the writing. The first half is replete with very funny planted lines. As with the original script, we see less one liners and a much more sober second half that admittedly, deals with distressing interactions and issues.

Goers has directed highly skilled actors in such a way that every second of Looped is purposeful, gripping and engrossing. His set design using simple, but correct (congratulations on the detail!) furniture and props including film reels, 60’s microphones allow the audience to ‘be’ in a sound recording studio. Details include Frank Sinatra crooning his 60’s hits at the start and at breaks. Sound and light by Kesson Riley is excellent and ensures that every gesture and particularly often powerful facial expression can be seen and heard.

This is a play not to be missed for both the story and performances. It will be a travesty if Lott is not nominated for awards, such is the power of her work. Bankhead’s advice to Danny resonates strongly when she says, “The actual core of it is that you need to live your life as who you are and not hide away from being honestly who you are; you don’t have to conform, you don’t have to live your life by their rules.” Get in quickly for this rule breaking play.

Jude Hines

Photographer: Rebekah Ryan