Parents and heroes are some of the most powerful and mysterious figures in our lives.
We don’t get to choose our parents and while it seems as if we choose our heroes, who we choose is often determined by our relationship with our parents.
But what if our parent is a famous actress who made a motion picture with another famous actress, who, one might say, was the most famous actress in the world – possibly of all time? What do we do when that other, more famous actress seems to contain all the features that our own mother lacks?
Those questions are examined in “Marilyn, Mom & Me,” a new play written and directed by Luke Yankee, which opened this past weekend at International City Theatre. The play is an intimate look into the relationship between Eileen Heckart, an icon in her own right, and her son who, like most of the world, is more than a little obsessed with Marilyn Monroe.
The casting is phenomenal, to the point that it was near resurrection for the actresses playing Eileen Heckart and Marilyn Monroe. Laura Gardner, playing Heckart, beautifully crafted her performance to slowly reveal the character’s vulnerable interior through Heckart’s tough, hard working, no-nonsense persona.
Alisha Soper, playing Monroe, revealed different facets of the icon that rang so true it was chill-inducing. Having portrayed the icon in a couple of Ryan Murphy productions, here she gets to show just how deeply she has studied and understands every nuance of Monroe.
Jacquelin Lorraine Schofield and Noah Wagner, who portray everyone else, skillfully crafted a series of personas like little gems, from Schofield’s turn as Eileen’s practical-as-salt best friend, Rosetta Noir, to the “First Lady of Song” Ella Fitzgerald, and Wagner switching from Arthur Miller to Lawrence Olivier.
Brian Rohan, portraying Heckart’s son, conveyed a sense of longing that those of us with colder mothers know. His character seeks to find out about his fictional mother through the stories of the real mother, which he does with the persistence and spirit of a child that first felt what home was like in Marilyn’s arms — if only in his imagination.
Yankee’s direction deserves to be praised for truly being an invisible hand.
The cinematic-like shifts in the script are handled beautifully by the clever use of Dan Volante’s set. I love a set that features no decorations — trust me — but my only wish would be to dispense with the projections. While they were lovely, lighting and sound alone could have made it clear when and where we were.
Getting our parents to open up and talk about their past is often a long and tedious process – one that we may or may not succeed with. How wonderful it must be to have at least one parent who loves to talk about their life, their successes, their failures and their friendships so that we can learn how to navigate our own lives.
Otherwise, we just keep looking.
Many of us strain to understand our parents, going through memorabilia, photos and letters as we sit pondering. For a skilled playwright like Yankee, though, that results in this work of art — a piece that might just illuminate the paths of all who see it.
Marilyn, Mom & Me
When: 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sundays through March 3
Where: Beverly O’Neill Theater, 330 E Seaside Way
Cost: $49 on Thursday-Saturday; $52 on Sundays
Information: 562-436-4610 or InternationalCityTheatre.org.
