Renee O'Connor in Jane Martin's " TALKING WITH"

Report by Judith BardNutcase (Cincinnati OH)
meshuggepup@cnz.com

Images used are by Mesh, Carol, Mickie & DJ

Renee O'Connor performed 5 of the monologues from the play. But first, she came on-stage in the BGSB, as an elderly stooped Renee O'Connor. She began by mentioning the con she appeared at in 2004:} I believe she said her grandson asked her why she had gotten out the Costume to wear."Because I can" she replied to wonderful warm laughter in the house.

The stone that was given to Renee and Lucy by the XENA crew, she used it to tell of the family they had made during Xena. The Yin and Yang. And looking out into the audience she said we were her Xena Family, too.

I am told that Renee scripted the first part herself. With that bit, Renee O'Connor embraced us, and as she removed her Gabrielle costume, and went to a rack of Props and costumes for TALKING WITH, Renee the actress, who through Gabrielle Has given us so much, retreated from the stage.

Then Renee O'Connor the fine actress we all know she is apart from Gabrielle appeared. Then as she drew on the costume for her first monologue, each character appeared with the use of simple costumes and minimal props. Because each of the character's experiences are so timeless,so universal they draw you in and you become a participant. You start thinking oh my, I have been there, I have done that, thought that, been that. The emotions provoked run the gamut from amusing, to poignant to shocking.

For me Renee O'Connor grabbed me from the git-go and never let go. Just because I am a devoted fan, don't think I wouldn't tell the truth if she didn't nail it. The audience was respectful and right there with her the whole time. To use a tried but true cliché, she held us in the palm of her hand. I may have the sequence of bits wrong, but as I remember them here goes.

The first was "FIFTEEN MINUTES"

An actress reflects on the minutes before the curtain goes up. She sits on a dressing table/desk and is putting on her makeup. As she speaks it becomes apparent ala Norma Desmond she appreciates the people out there in the dark. In fact she appreciates their role out of the spotlight. She wants to see the audience and turn the houselights up on them, to connect with them Face to face, to have us feel the spotlight as she does. When they really do turn the house lights up she scans the crowd slowly and figuratively draws us up on stage with her.


I believe "RODEO" was next.




In a jean jacket and worn straw cowboy hat a "Cowgirl" tells of her disenchantment with The commercialism of the sport. It has become Disneyfied Hokum. She tells of how she grew up with the RODEO. Some of her experiences, one particularly amusing anecdote of a well endowed woman who when she fell off her horse... she left two holes large enough to plant trees in. This character was gutsy, liked to throw in a curse word to make her point. Renee caught the gritty, hard living feel of the character. She was in motion for this character a lot of the time, walking to and fro. I think this made her unrest/helplessness more evident. I swear I felt a bit of rodeo dust in the air as she performed.

 

 

Then Renee performed "Clear Glass Marbles"

WOW. WOW and WOW.

Clear Glass Marbles is the poignant reminiscence of a young woman whose mother bravely fought cancer. When her mother finds out she has only 3 months to live, she has Her daughter buy 90 clear glass marbles. Which the mother puts in a bowl by her bedside. She holds one marble each day."To make the day last longer". At the end of each night she lets them fall to the floor. The audience was so nvolved you heard the rattle of the marbles as they hit the floor like a shot.

The young woman sits quietly as she tells of her mother's brave fight. And how that fight changed her. How she would make sure to always make the day last longer.

Renee O'Connor was so affecting with this one it makes my heart ache days later. I think you could say her performance here was dignified and resonant and captivating. Unless you are an unusually hard person this one had to evoke deep emotion.


I believe that "HANDLER" was next.

In this piece we meet a young Appalachian Woman. Her dilemma in life is in the faces of good and evil. Her evangelical father believes in the handling of snakes As a barometer of the good or the sin in people. When he is bitten and I believe his face is paralyzed<?> She loses her faith in God's role in the act of snake handling. Something that was always a part of her life. The belief
In it that shaped her life.

Renee used a long tightly twisted scarf as the snake. She finally removes the snake from the box, which stays on the floor through the monologue. She would often bend down and sort of caress the
snake box as she told of her experiences with religion, sin and snakes. The snake doesn't bite her and you can feel the moment when the young Woman realizes that it is her own noble spirit that will protect her, not a god choosing who is bitten and who is not.

You feel joyous for her when she gets past her doubt. Again, Renee worked with a subject, snake handling/religion, which could have been easily overdone, but, I keep wanting to use the word dignity/diginified when describing her performances. But, I think that it is an apt one.

 

"MARKS"

It's about a lonely woman who feels her life has been Unremarkable. Renee wears a black camisole that reveals tattoos on her arms, upper chest and abdomen.

After her husband deserts her she sets out to "live". To feel life. One encounter with a man in the back seat of a car leaves her with a mark, not a tattoo but a slash across the face with a knife, a slash of red lipstick is used.

After that "mark" she goes about life and with each person she meets, each event that changes/touches her unremarkable life, she gets a tattoo to commemorate being marked by life.
Not all the "mark's are negative. I think she called them hieroglyphs of life.

In the end her life has seen many "marks". Her body a canvas for what she has seen, who she
Has become. This character left you feeling she was very glad to have every "mark". That indeed, those who are without "marks" to chronicle a life, you haven't lived. The "marks" of course are not all tattoos. But the marks of love and compassion and feeling and empathy in your heart. Very cool performance, with subtle nuances and maturity, if you will, for a woman of Renee's age.


I would have loved for her to have had the time to do all the monologues. Reading up on this it seems there are 10 bits to the play.

The only time I really thought "Renee O'Connor" was on stage was the first moments in her Gabrielle costume. After that she inhabited the roles.
 

You knew I was going to say this but by Gabby, SHE ROC'd!
I flew 3000 miles and burned my plastic cards to a pulp but I would do it again in a nano-second if she were to appear in such a production again.



She was given quite a long standing ovation. When it came time for the Q&A we just got to hear a moment of Renee talking about her acting teacher, she broke into tears talking about how she was learning to open her heart. She was just getting ahold of herself emotionally to do a Q&A.

The first person to stand up and holler turned out to be a disguised Lucy Lawless. Dreadlocks wig, bulky body suit, glasses. Renee recognized her from across the room almost immediately. She was very, very surprised and delighted. Renee asked Lucy to take off her wig and Lucy did so reluctantly with Renee's assistance<very sweet>.

Lucy asked Renee about her soon to be release Diamonds and Guns, and she said it would be out in a few months<?> but with all the emotion of the night my impression was Renee was overwhelmed and they just sort of abruptly thanked us and left the stage.

And didn't come back.

I hope they had a wonderful visit.

I know all of us who traveled from far and near to visit with old friends, sure did<g>

More later about the incredibly delectable and distracting Charles Mesure
and the charming and warm Alisons: Wall and Bruce


Judith

 

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