You Can't Tell Yer Priestesses Without A Scorecard.  
Warrior...Priestess...Tramp

Review by: Lord Nelson
lrdnlson@capital.net


Perhaps the third time really is the charm.  Warrior...Priestess...Tramp,
the third time that Lucy Lawless has played multiple roles in Xena:
Warrior Princess was surprisingly far from stale.  Granted that the general
situation was the same as the first two episodes in this series
(Warrior...Princess, Warrior...Princess...Tramp) the manner in which the
multiplicity was handled was very different.  The first two were as
expected, mistaken identity farces.  In this case, clearly the plot was
very secondary to character development.  The comedy came from the
contrasts between the three parts Lucy played, and the veiled, and witty
bawdyness of the dialog and some specific situations.  Clearly what was
looked at was the development of the Reverend Leah when placed in a "fish
out of water" situation.  This was compounded by the fact that Leah had to
play a different role as Princess Diana was forced to do in the first two
eps.  The inner conflict in Leah as well as the outer conflict beween the
three parts Lucy played, Joxer, and the bad guy Baleyus made for very good
comedy situations.  Needless to say, Lucy carried them off brillantly.

This script by Armas and Foster  was chock full of what I thought was very
witty and I thought helarious references to sex.  There was subtext galore
and I saw no corseness at all.  What I did see was a kind of sexual humor
that used to be seen in great old movies like Moll Flanders, Tom Jones and
the like.  Armas and Foster even succeeded in developing Joxer by setting
up a very sweet situation reminiscent of the great old John Huston film
"Moulin Rouge" which was a biography of the great impressionist painter
Henri D'Toulouse-Lautrec.  Lautrec was physically and psychologically
crippled.  The only meaningful relationships that he ever made with women
were with the women of a Paris brothel, who adopted him and took care of
him in many ways, just as Meg and her girls in Meg's brothel took care of
Joxer. Joxer is a similar crippled character.  He's a congenital idiot.
In neither case was the man pitied, he was valued by the ladies and was a
friend to them.  Ted Raimi was wonderful in this series of scenes and it
was very clear that Joxer was far more than a simple john.  This worked
extremely well, and it was very funny.

Another reason this script worked was its slower pace.  The first two were
clear farces.  This one was more of a character study, a character study
that couldn't have worked if it wasn't for the wonderful triple performance
of Lucy.  Lucy Lawless is a very special talent and it is clearly shown in
these multiple role eps.  It was very easy to pick out who the three
different characters were most of the time throughout the ep because of
their totally different body language.  The only other actor that was
really capble of a performance style like that was Cary Grant, and it was
wonderful to behold.  Lucy's comedic timing is superb as usual, and her
generosity to her cast mates make for totally plausible and human
interactions.

As always with Lucy, the angel is in the details.  It has always appeared
to me that Lucy decides early on about the detailed postures, attitudes,
speech patterns and gestures of a character before using her training in
The Method to totally integrate the pieces into a coherent whole.  Leah is
a great example.  Lucy started off by choosing the character's manner of
speech.  This is in my opinion NOT a speech impediment, but a VERY, VERY
upper class English accent from a neighborhood in London called Belgravia.
I don't know if this accent was transferred to New Zealand, but it sure
made Leah a very unique character.  Then she took a stiff upright stance
compared with Meg's slouch and Xena's relaxed, atheletic, stance.  This was
marvellous, sophisticated acting.

Leah started out with the prissyness of, as someone else pointed out, Dana
Carvey's Church lady.  However, from the first Leah demonstrated courage,
intelligence, and willingness to learn.  Her initial sexual rigidity made
her the perfect straight person for the bawdy jokes around her and allowed
Lucy to make a fool of herself expertly.  That is a sign of her courage as
an actor.  Leah also had considerable passion for her work and once she'd
learned from Gabrielle, concern for others.  She became a very likable, and
even admirable character, one worthy of seeing again.

There were a lot of wonderful lines in the episode.  I cite:  Gabrielle:
"If I'm going to spend the rest of my life without companionship, knowing
myself will NOT be a problem." Xena to a virgin who was enamored of a
summer squash  "Sometimes you have to take things into your own hands."
Guard:  "Virgins only alowed."  Gabrielle:  "Is that stamped on my forehead
or something?"  To the topper of them all Leah's  "I pray that was a
petting zoo!"  All of them were extremely funny and often rather shocking.
My girlfriend and I roared at many of them.  

The fights were excellent.  For the first time as well, Armas and Foster
made Gabrielle a VERY strong charcter.  She was smart, quick thinking,
courageous and energetic throughout the episode.  Gabrielle saving Leah
from burning at the stake was a CLASSIC Gabrielle moment as was her yelling
at who she thought was Xena.  Armas and Foster had always written a weak
and helpless Gabrielle in the past.  (This was especially true of King of
Assassins which was by far the weakest of ALL Xena scripts.)  With
Gabrielle strong and holding things together while Xena played the other
roles to do her reconaissance work, the plan to end the destruction of the
Cult of Hestia succeded.  It wouldn't have if Gabrielle was weak.  This
made the episode far more effective.  Renee also relished this opportunity
and made the most of it.  Her reactions and funny asides were riotous and
delivered with delicious snap.  

To conclude, While not of the very finest of the comedy episodes (ADITL is
still my favorite with BTDT very close behind) I think it is stronger than
Warrior..Princess...Tramp and a delight to watch, especially for looking
for missed details. I especially liked its light hearted view of sex.
(Look fast for Jodie Dorday as one of the "Girls")  I would love to see
more episodes with Lucy playing multiple parts but perhaps with each role
designed NOT to look like Xena.  There were several such movies from
England in the 50's.  Alec Guiness played 9 parts in the film "Kind Hearts
and Coronets," including one woman.  Peter Sellers played 6 I believe in
"The Mouse That Roared."  Greatest of them all was Sellers playing 3
incredible parts in Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece Doctor Strangelove.  Lucy
is clearly capable of such a performance. (Can you imagine her in MALE drag?)

All in all this was a very solid and funny episode.  It's a worthy
addition to the Cannon of Xena: Warrior Princess.

LordNelson

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