A Show That Has Everything
Grey Gardens - Villa Elisabeth, Berlin, 7th February, 2013
Grey Gardens was THE show I had been looking forward to since the day it was announced late last year loving the OBC and the *cough* boots *cough* I had heard before had made me wanting to see it for several years - even if it meant going to Berlin during the week with leaving work early to get an afternoon train, seeing the show in the evening, staying overnight. taking a very early train back to Hamburg to go to the office straight from the central station.
The stuff I do to see certain shows.
Wikipedia tells us that "Grey Gardens is a musical with book by Doug Wright, music by Scott Frankel, and lyrics by Michael Korie, based on the 1975 documentary of the same title about the lives of Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale ("Big Edie") and her daughter Edith Bouvier Beale ("Little Edie") by Albert and David Maysles.
The Beales were Jacqueline Kennedy's aunt and cousin, respectively. Set at Grey Gardens, the Bouviers' mansion in East Hampton, New York, the musical tracks the progression of the two women's lives from their original status as rich and socially polished aristocrats to their eventual largely isolated existence in a home overrun by cats and cited for repeated health code violations.
However, its more central purpose is to untangle the complicated dynamics of their dysfunctional mother/daughter relationship."
The stuff I do to see certain shows.
Wikipedia tells us that "Grey Gardens is a musical with book by Doug Wright, music by Scott Frankel, and lyrics by Michael Korie, based on the 1975 documentary of the same title about the lives of Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale ("Big Edie") and her daughter Edith Bouvier Beale ("Little Edie") by Albert and David Maysles.
The Beales were Jacqueline Kennedy's aunt and cousin, respectively. Set at Grey Gardens, the Bouviers' mansion in East Hampton, New York, the musical tracks the progression of the two women's lives from their original status as rich and socially polished aristocrats to their eventual largely isolated existence in a home overrun by cats and cited for repeated health code violations.
However, its more central purpose is to untangle the complicated dynamics of their dysfunctional mother/daughter relationship."
Cast:
"Little" Edie Bouvier Beale - Frederike Haas
"Big" Edith Bouvier Beale - Katja Brauneis
All Male Roles - Alen Hodzovic
Ensemble: Hellen Swantje Wecker, Caro Olbertz, Christina Burian, Sandra Mennicke, Sarah Reimer, Paulina Plucinski, Susanne Wiener, Sophie Duda, Sahand Aghdasi, Lars Hünerfürst, Jasper Sonne
The original Broadway show is split in act 1 being set in 1940s telling about "Little" Edie's engagement with Joe Kennedy, their eventual break-up after all the intrusion of "Big" Edith on the day of the party, "Big" Edith's own issues with the break up of her marriage, her father, her unrequited love for her pianist etc. and act 2 in 1973 being closely based on the documentary when the two women live as recluses with dozen of flea-infested cats (and a raccoon) in the house with handyman Jerry being pretty much their only help which is then in a most messy state.
What I got to see though was so different from what I had expected and what an experience it was being totally enraptured and fascinated with the show grabbing my soul, grabbing my heart.
First the show, announced as a musical installation directed masterfully by Martin G. Berger whose "Anyone Can Whistle" was one of my 2012 highlights and who was also in charge for the translations of Grey Gardens, was not on in an ordinary theatre but in an old not yet fully renovated villa with bare walls used as an event location these days.
When picking up my ticket I was already told to better leave my coat on the hall-stands as we would walk around during the show. Okay.... that sounded intriguing.
So when it eventually got close to 8pm there was still no entry waiting in the foyer. 8pm, a few minutes past 8pm people were already wondering what was wrong when suddenly Frederike Haas as "Little" Edie appeared on the staircase welcoming us in her home called "Grey Gardens" - like the original "Little" Edie might have welcomed the actual documentary film makers.
We were eventually led up the stairs to the main room, no not room, a two storey hall with a balcony surrounding it, of the villa where the main part of the show would take place being told to just sit wherever we want - except on her mother's bed.
We, the audience, were actually within the set, no the "Grey Gardens" house, with the floor totally cluttered and messed with papers and other stuff, chairs, largely standing around, some randomly covered by linen, so you sometimes had to remove it of the chair you picked, even turn it around as several were standing around upside down or on the side. Some people even would sit on cardboards, window benches etc..
There were a few aisles in which the action to take place, the already mentioned bed, plus two (?) little old fashioned TV's used for some clever videos when e.g. "Big" Edith's father appears, an old record player.... And the the band with a piano taking most space was at the back.
You would never really know where the next scene would take place. It could have been everywhere in that room - sometimes just a bit unluckily staged as some people could not see all as I e.g. later in the final scene when the audience was up on the balcony looking down as some larger/taller people just did not think there might be some behind them.
Saying that, yes the action was not just there in that place, we would actually really walk around the house as I had been told - for the scene "Jerry Likes My Corn" is part of we actually moved to the room next door, then when Joe Kennedy breaks up the engagement we moved on to another stairwell and then up to the balcony. What a directing clever idea (except for the bit that not everyone could see all) with the set (by Sarah-Katharina Karl) matching the show so perfectly.
But not only the location is different to prior productions, at least the ones I am familiar with, the show's, close to the original translated but keeping its essence and its pep as far as I can tell, at least for the songs I know pretty well, two acts had been interwoven into one (total running time around 80 minutes without an interval), that the 1940s scenes are like flashbacks, retrospects, dreams of the past, with the transitions being so smooth and fluid removing one of the issues a lot people criticised about the show that act 1 is too long and dragging (despite setting up the foundation for act 2 and its events in it giving potential explanations how it could all could go downhill so much) really just focusing on what is important to understand matching the right scene(s) from the original act 1 with the right scene(s) from act 2 to not give away too much too soon but to tell as much as needed connecting the moments so well.
The characters were so delicately developed and defined throughout the show even with the cutbacks in which the various people would change their behaviours and how relationships, in this case the parent-daughter relationships (as the father-Edith part is also important to understand Edith) can evolve over the years and there is a dignified balance between the comedic and serious aspects of the story despite all the emotional abuse and hatred especially in the 1970s bits.
So unlike in the prior productions we didn't have the special casting that the Edith in act 1 plays the older Edie in act 2 with a different Edie in act 1 and a different Edith in act 2.
But not only we got a nearly perfect location, set and directing but also the cast left nothing to be desired with Frederike Haas and Katja Brauneis being such a spellbinding couple
What I got to see though was so different from what I had expected and what an experience it was being totally enraptured and fascinated with the show grabbing my soul, grabbing my heart.
First the show, announced as a musical installation directed masterfully by Martin G. Berger whose "Anyone Can Whistle" was one of my 2012 highlights and who was also in charge for the translations of Grey Gardens, was not on in an ordinary theatre but in an old not yet fully renovated villa with bare walls used as an event location these days.
When picking up my ticket I was already told to better leave my coat on the hall-stands as we would walk around during the show. Okay.... that sounded intriguing.
So when it eventually got close to 8pm there was still no entry waiting in the foyer. 8pm, a few minutes past 8pm people were already wondering what was wrong when suddenly Frederike Haas as "Little" Edie appeared on the staircase welcoming us in her home called "Grey Gardens" - like the original "Little" Edie might have welcomed the actual documentary film makers.
We were eventually led up the stairs to the main room, no not room, a two storey hall with a balcony surrounding it, of the villa where the main part of the show would take place being told to just sit wherever we want - except on her mother's bed.
We, the audience, were actually within the set, no the "Grey Gardens" house, with the floor totally cluttered and messed with papers and other stuff, chairs, largely standing around, some randomly covered by linen, so you sometimes had to remove it of the chair you picked, even turn it around as several were standing around upside down or on the side. Some people even would sit on cardboards, window benches etc..
There were a few aisles in which the action to take place, the already mentioned bed, plus two (?) little old fashioned TV's used for some clever videos when e.g. "Big" Edith's father appears, an old record player.... And the the band with a piano taking most space was at the back.
You would never really know where the next scene would take place. It could have been everywhere in that room - sometimes just a bit unluckily staged as some people could not see all as I e.g. later in the final scene when the audience was up on the balcony looking down as some larger/taller people just did not think there might be some behind them.
Saying that, yes the action was not just there in that place, we would actually really walk around the house as I had been told - for the scene "Jerry Likes My Corn" is part of we actually moved to the room next door, then when Joe Kennedy breaks up the engagement we moved on to another stairwell and then up to the balcony. What a directing clever idea (except for the bit that not everyone could see all) with the set (by Sarah-Katharina Karl) matching the show so perfectly.
But not only the location is different to prior productions, at least the ones I am familiar with, the show's, close to the original translated but keeping its essence and its pep as far as I can tell, at least for the songs I know pretty well, two acts had been interwoven into one (total running time around 80 minutes without an interval), that the 1940s scenes are like flashbacks, retrospects, dreams of the past, with the transitions being so smooth and fluid removing one of the issues a lot people criticised about the show that act 1 is too long and dragging (despite setting up the foundation for act 2 and its events in it giving potential explanations how it could all could go downhill so much) really just focusing on what is important to understand matching the right scene(s) from the original act 1 with the right scene(s) from act 2 to not give away too much too soon but to tell as much as needed connecting the moments so well.
The characters were so delicately developed and defined throughout the show even with the cutbacks in which the various people would change their behaviours and how relationships, in this case the parent-daughter relationships (as the father-Edith part is also important to understand Edith) can evolve over the years and there is a dignified balance between the comedic and serious aspects of the story despite all the emotional abuse and hatred especially in the 1970s bits.
So unlike in the prior productions we didn't have the special casting that the Edith in act 1 plays the older Edie in act 2 with a different Edie in act 1 and a different Edith in act 2.
But not only we got a nearly perfect location, set and directing but also the cast left nothing to be desired with Frederike Haas and Katja Brauneis being such a spellbinding couple
Katja Brauneis was just grand as "Big" Edith, whose husband first cheated on her to eventually divorce her.
Even though Edith is essentially the unsympathetic character being so self-involved trying everything to constantly take center stage, whether asked or not (as her idea of performing at her daughter's engagement party) and doing everything to sabotage other people's lives, even her own daughter's, as her romances, gloating and flamboyant in the 1940s scenes and so irritating, grotesque and even frightening (her comic timing was just excellent) in the scenes 30 years later but with the agonising fear of loneliness beneath the glossy surface always slightly shining through you could not help but to care for her.
Even though Edith is essentially the unsympathetic character being so self-involved trying everything to constantly take center stage, whether asked or not (as her idea of performing at her daughter's engagement party) and doing everything to sabotage other people's lives, even her own daughter's, as her romances, gloating and flamboyant in the 1940s scenes and so irritating, grotesque and even frightening (her comic timing was just excellent) in the scenes 30 years later but with the agonising fear of loneliness beneath the glossy surface always slightly shining through you could not help but to care for her.
Her voice's full of pathos and despair but she still could turn the moment into a victory when telling us of "The Cake I Had" (and not only had, she ate the whole) or of the fact that "Jerry Likes My Corn" (a young man working for them in the 1970s) - usually one over her daughter.
Frederike Haas as "Little" Edie embodied the young Edie's headstrong vivaciousness and vibrancy dreaming of freedom and independence but with already the first hints of tragic as Edie more and more had to deal with e.g. her mother's interferences, and the older Edie's madness and eccentricity having turned into, as it seemed, a total paranoid nut case, with such a radiant conviction.
Her so finely layered and blended character study and its supporting singing just showed the right balance of the hopes she once had (and maybe still has), the resentment, the resignation, the compassion, the cynicism, the delusion.
Her "Revolutionary Costume For Today" is sung so hilariously totally showing what Edie had turned into over the years becoming a most tragic heroine which even being even more clear in the last scene just as Edie stepped outside Edith cried out for help, you could just feel Edie's heart shattered as realising where her future unavoidably lied and that there was no escape as long as her mother's around.
Frederike Haas as "Little" Edie embodied the young Edie's headstrong vivaciousness and vibrancy dreaming of freedom and independence but with already the first hints of tragic as Edie more and more had to deal with e.g. her mother's interferences, and the older Edie's madness and eccentricity having turned into, as it seemed, a total paranoid nut case, with such a radiant conviction.
Her so finely layered and blended character study and its supporting singing just showed the right balance of the hopes she once had (and maybe still has), the resentment, the resignation, the compassion, the cynicism, the delusion.
Her "Revolutionary Costume For Today" is sung so hilariously totally showing what Edie had turned into over the years becoming a most tragic heroine which even being even more clear in the last scene just as Edie stepped outside Edith cried out for help, you could just feel Edie's heart shattered as realising where her future unavoidably lied and that there was no escape as long as her mother's around.
All male parts were played by Alen Hodzovic who besides the two strong women still could add his own mark on the show leaving some convincing distinct characterisations.
His Joe Kennedy was most charming, as you expect a Kennedy to be, his Jerry was such a cutely caring simple-minded handyman.
His George Gould Strong, "Big" Edith's pianist and confidante, was so seductively camp and cynical and he could also impress as "Big" Edith's father for which the TV's were used with a video, so cleverly filmed, shown of Alen as the father talking to the two women, but not just straight ahead but look up and down, to the left, to the right - just there were the Edie's would stand in that scene.
His Joe Kennedy was most charming, as you expect a Kennedy to be, his Jerry was such a cutely caring simple-minded handyman.
His George Gould Strong, "Big" Edith's pianist and confidante, was so seductively camp and cynical and he could also impress as "Big" Edith's father for which the TV's were used with a video, so cleverly filmed, shown of Alen as the father talking to the two women, but not just straight ahead but look up and down, to the left, to the right - just there were the Edie's would stand in that scene.
The music is pleasantly melodic covering various kinds of music styles with some are more fun performance numbers while others are character-driven with skilfully written, so witty, jaunty and clever, lyrics that intensify the characterisations and help to move the book forward and performed by Bijan Azudivan and his band filling the venue with so much life that it was such fun to listen to them, the three protagonists and the supporting choir, which was first hidden on the balcony and later was visible for audience.
It is such a shame that there were only two performances and I can only hope they bring it back for a few more. It would so deserve it being one of most captivating dramatically satisfying theatre experiences on all levels I have EVER seen.
