April 22, 2009 - Let Me Down Easy at
Zachary Scott Theatre
When Anna Deavere Smith
takes the stage at ZACH for her one-woman show Let Me Down Easy,
you know something magical is about to happen. You can
see it in her eyes.
Probably one of the
greatest American stage actors alive today, she does the
impossible: holds an audience spell-bound for 90 minutes with
nothing but an extended monologue.
Her new show, now playing
in Austin before transferring to New York, is the result of 10
years of work, and more than 200 interviews, to explore the
subject of death. But it's the specific interviews that
she culled - and the real-life people that Smith inhabits to
speak their own words - that make Let
Me Down Easy such a
remarkable night of theatre.
Smith doesn't just emulate
her subjects - she becomes them, down to the quirks and ticks.
She transforms herself - voice, body, mannerism, stature
and emotions - in the blink of an eye, from athlete Lance
Armstrong to playwright Eve Ensler to a Midland teenager with
leukemia. And the words they speak through her are
entertaining, thought-provoking, and sometimes heart-breaking,
Since this theatre
piece was born in Texas, the performance is heavy with Texas
characters, including the late Governor Ann Richards. The
show will probably evolve before it reaches New York, but
it’s Ann that gets the biggest reaction of the night.
The only stumbling
block in the production is the stage hand that continually
reappears to bring Smith the prop or piece of costuming that
aids each character transformation. The repeated
interruptions break the flow of the show, and the distractions
drain the emotional power from several key moments.
Hopefully, by the time the show reaches New York, a hope
chest will be added to the set, where Smith can produce the
props and costume pieces herself - like a Pandora's Box, where
she can slip on a jacket as easily as she slips on the soul of
each new character.