Yes—and so many key elements of the Edies’ lives in the second act are embedded in the first act, except there they are examples of privilege and status, not reclusiveness and decay. Everything is turned upside or heightened. The press fawns over the Beales in Act I; they are the critical antagonists of the women in Act II. There’s foreshadowing throughout: the references to the grounds (the carefully trimmed hedges and garden); “Why would anyone ever want to leave?” Big Edie declares; Gould telling her when he’s gone, she can talk to herself and the occasional cat; and then there’s “Peas in a Pod,” a “Tea for Two” twenties pastiche that on the surface is a romantic tune for a man and woman yearning to isolate in a cozy cottage...but plays out very differently for the two women. (My one gripe with that song is Little Edie in 1941 says it’s the first song her mother taught her, yet the majority of the cultural references are from the thirties, not the twenties.)
But the clincher for me was a visual effect. In the short prologue in 1973, Mary Louise Wilson played her scene behind a scrim, with Ebersole responding from behind. Wilson has a ratty, stained, tattered silk kimono wrapped around her. We then shift to 1941, and Ebersole glided on stage, in a stunning William Ivey Long dress....with the same kimono. Except intact, shimmering, radiating wealth and position.
I was hooked, entirely, from that moment on.
Laura |
