Review- Persona Marilyn- LCSD
26-10-13
By: Olivia Rosenman
If you’ve had a hard week at work, Persona. Marilyn is not advisable as Friday night entertainment. Luckily I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. This is by no means criticism of the play. In fact, in Hong Kong’s all too often bland and conventional arts scene, Persona. Marilyn is a very welcome brain wrench. Just don’t go if you’re feeling fragile, or if you are sensitive to the cold.
Krystian Lupa, the playwright and director, is a physicist as well as an artist of many media. He’s also obsessed with Jungian and Witkacy psychoanalysis. It is well-worth making time to read the program before the play, because then you won’t be waiting for a plot or action. (I had to wait until I read it at interval). Lupa writes therein, “Andy Warhol said that his films were about personality – not the history or the fate of individuals, but personality in all its ineffability – so when your subject is a person, it’s better to watch them than tell stories”.
He describes the play as a fantasy about Marilyn Monroe. It is not the story of her life but instead an experimental showcase of situations that manifest her personality. As Lupa puts it “Personality is not merely the character of an individual, but also that individual’s radical longing, his or her unfulfilled yet potential persona”.
To put this slightly vague, highfalutin description into practical terms: not much happens in the play. A drunk, depressed and confused ‘Marilyn’ talks to herself, dances, drinks and undresses again and again. She also interacts with a revolving door of people such as Paula Strasberg, her acting coach and close friend, and Andre de Dienes, the Transylvanian photographer who shot several sexy pictures now part of the canon of Marilyn images. There’s also Ralph Greenson, her psychiatrist who should probably be seeing a psychiatrist himself. The doctor-patient relationship seems far from therapeutic. It is unsurprising to learn that there are rumours he was involved in a cover-up of the circumstances of Marilyn’s death. All of these characters have deep, meaningful and oftentimes unintelligible interactions with Marilyn as she swans and strides about the stage in her underwear.
I found it strangely captivating, inspiring far more action in my own brain than what was going on on stage. Again, this is not criticism, what I’m trying to say is the play makes you think. The impressive grand finale scene offers some closure, although you’ll still feel the need for a hard drink after the show.
The dramatic Theatre of the City of Warsaw is a professional, highly-skilled troupe. From the set to the sound to the acting, all facets of the production quality were impressive.
Arctic temperatures sent people scrambling out the doors into the warmth of outside during the interval. My date mused it was intentional and I was inclined to agree. Being freezing serves to heighten the discomfort of exploring the hoaxes and lies in the life of an artist. If you don’t feel like empathising with the characters’ pain, however, the theatre has some charming shawls available to borrow (several audience members’ frozen pleas with theatre staff failed to produce any results).
The surtitles were projected high at the back of the very deep stage. They were small and occasionally out of sync, at times leaving you hanging for several seconds. This was a minor issue, of greater concern was the fact that in looking up to read, you missed the emotion (usually torment) on the actors’ faces. I don’t know how this could be addressed, however, until Matrix –style instant learning becomes a reality and each audience member would be made instantly fluent in Polish on arrival (according to some, this might not be as far away as we imagine).
Persona Marilyn is playing at the Kwai Tsing Theatre through Sunday. For more information, click here.
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