CROYDEN'S CORNER
by Margaret Croyden
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| Margaret Croyden is a theater reviewer and essayist for the New York Theatre Wire. | |
Woman Before a Glass: Peggy Guggenheim, Super Art Collector
with Mercedes Ruehl
By Lanie Robertson
The Promenade Theater, West 77th Street & Broadway
opened March 10,2005
Reviewed March 17, 2005 by Margaret Croyden
Peggy Guggenheim was a renowned art collector who discovered all the important
art of her time. Now only did she own the art, but housed it and saved it
forever to became one of the world's most distinguished collections. Housed
in the Venice Palazzo where she lived, the collection has drawn thousands
of art lovers to Venice to see the Guggenheim paintings and sculpture. No
wonder Peggy Guggenheim's life, as a subject for a play, would interest any
author. But unfortunately, the playwright Lannie Robertson, depicted Peggy
Guggenheim as a unlovable bitch, interested in sex more than art, nasty to
her help, patronizing to her mentally ill daughter, and generally behaving
as a woman with a giant ego who used art to maintain her self image. For an
art collector, she speaks little about art except to name drop.
The one woman show, staring Mercedes Ruehl, takes place at Guggenheim's Palazzo
where she wanders around in her lavish palace trying on and throwing out all
her clothes which gives her a chance to name drop all the important couturiers
who dressed her. At the same time, she rants about everything and everyone--mostly
the lovers she had and how good or bad they were in bed. Then she berates
her Italian housekeeper who is taking off when she is expecting some notables.
With a glass of vodka, or champagne, or whatever in hand, she conducts her
business. All along, she screams out in Italian, flirts with the man across
the lagoon, and is good at making a bad impression. She is less the picture
of an art aficionado and more the stereotypical filthy-mouthed rich-bitch
type on third rate television shows.
Repeatedly, she disdains her "Jewish" looks especially her nose,
which she claims is a source of her ugliness. With plenty of vulgarity she
reveals the names of her lovers and their prowess or lack of it. (Sex is on
her mind constantly) Then there is the most ridiculous scene of all. She had
been meandering around the room in a see-through nightgown that plainly reveals
her breasts, and finally after we have had a good look at Mercedes Ruehl's
breasts, she dons a brassiere maneuvering it under the nightgown-- skillfully.
Are we supposed to applaud this? What is the meaning of this crude, distraction?
What was the director, the star, or playwright thinking?
The author was understandably limited since he chose to deal with a one woman
show so that the actress has a hard time relating to other people. Mainly
she talks to the audience. And that becomes tedious. Mercedes Ruehl is a fine
actress, to be sure, but is hampered by the coarseness of the script and doesn't
play against it. Guggenheim talks about how unattractive she is, and Ms. Ruehl
makes sure that she is. She wears a bad looking wig, a funny nose, a twisted
mouth, and Dame Edna's sun glasses which, when Edna wears them, she is charming.
When Ruehl wears them she is ugly. The actress took the playwright at his
word and offered us an unattractive personality, who, rather then being intellectual
or profound is a loud, repugnant narcissist.
Ms. Guggenheim might have possessed the qualities depicted in the play, but
emphasizing the negatives without a counterpart results in a caricature. I
give Peggy Guggenheim credit for her collection. But if you are going to put
her on the stage, we want to see the human being behind the facade. Nevertheless,
people in the audience liked it, and gave Mercedes Ruehl the usual standing
ovation. [Croyden]
Margaret Croyden's most recent book is "Conversations With Peter Brook, 1970-2000" (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
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