Let Me Down Easy Critical Eval

** Revisions/additions are shown in BLUE

Emma Imber
10-19-2009
IB Theatre Critical Evaluation
Let Me Down Easy

Anna Deavere Smith’s play, “Let Me Down Easy”, showing at the off-broadway Second Stage Theatre is a combination of many different theatrical elements, like with any theatre production. In this play, the elements that stood out to me included the research process, character acting, and the ensemble. In a one-woman show like Anna Deavere Smith’s, where each of the roles comes from a one-on-one interview, these elements become especially important. This can also be compared to The Laramie Project, a production with a similar research process and concept. Her use of "verbatim theatre" helped challenge my ideas of a playwright's proccess, and her methods of character acting were very inspiring.

In the talk-balk with the literature manager at the theatre, valuable information about Anna Deavere Smith’s research process was dispensed. She works much like a journalist, interviewing the people she plays, and then eventually portraying some of them in her performances. However, in the talk-balk, it became clear that it is much more complicated than just that. The woman who spoke to us at the talk-balk explained how the Second Stage production of “Let Me Down Easy” was not its original version. In fact, the play began as a request from the Yale School of Medicine to Anna Deveare Smith to do something healthcare related, and it evolved from there. Her rehearsal and writing process for this production are quite unique, and also very comprehensive. After interviewing over 300 people herself, she watches the tapes, and begins to narrow down to whom she may want to include in the show. In this she must have had to consider many different things, like how different interviewees are connected, and how the interview itself would be relevant to her show. Once she settles on which interviews she will probably use for the show, she has to work out how she will order them, and how long each will be, and that is just the writing aspect of the show. She uses the interviews verbatim, but as she works with the text of the production, she also has to rehearse how they will occur onstage. Most actors are not involved in the research, writing, and performance of the shows they do, but Anna Deveare Smith truly is a one-woman show, with a little help from directors, producers, and creative directors.

Anna Deveare Smith’s process, and concept, reminded me of The Techtonic Theatre Project’s “The Laramie Project”. “The Laramie Project” was also a somewhat journalistic piece. In that respect, the two shows are very alike. Although the Techtonic Theatre Project’s play was based off of one event, and Anna Deveare Smith’s show off of an idea, they both tied in to a greater picture. Both plays were based off of actor’s interviews with real people relating to a larger idea.

Moreover, after Anna Deveare Smith’s research is complete, the acting aspect comes into play, one part of the performance that really blew me away. In terms of acting, what her play and “The Laramie Project” have in common is that they demand character acting, which in both cases involves a contrast between the different characters onstage and the use of props to distinguish between them. Anna Deveare Smith uses props to help distinguish between characters, with a cup of Starbucks for one and a jacket for another, which probably helps both her characterization and the audience. When I was in “The Laramie Project”, we also used props when we were switching from one character to another. For example, one member of the cast wore a scarf to play a teacher character, and then would change to a baseball hat for another. This technique was also used in Dzieci’s Makbet, where a particular prop denoted that a specific character was being played. What these three plays share is that each cast member is required to play several roles, so there needs to be some way of communicating this effectively to the audience. This is even more important in “Let Me Down Easy”, because every role is played by the same woman, leading me to my observations on the role of the ensemble in her show, as compared to “The Laramie Project”

Anna Deveare Smith first pioneered Verbatim Theatre in the 1990s, and used it in Let Me Down Easy as well. Verbatim theatre is actually a form of "Documentary Theatre", which I did not know existed until I did some research after seeing her show. It makes sense, though, that her way of working would be assosciated with a documentary style, because much like a Ken Burns film on PBS, it is very committed to the truth and word-for-word excerpts. This has challenged the way I think of the proccess of creating a play. I always thought before that a playwright, like a novelist, would come up with an idea, than a story line, and then write it all down. However, Anna Deveare Smith goes straight to the people and stays very true to their words. I think this method is very powerful because by using the words of real people, she becomes more relatable, and I think it gives her more insight into the topic of the play she is creating. Also, the proccess of interviewing must help Anna Deveare Smith with her acting, because she can closely observe the people that she plays.

One thing that distinguishes “Let Me Down Easy” from a show from a similar concept, like “The Laramie Project”, is its very personal ensemble of one woman. “Let Me Down Easy” is her concept, her work, and her acting, whereas “The Laramie Project” may be attributed to The Techtonic Theatre Project, which is a group of actors working together. The acting ensembles of the two shows are very different, because Anna Deveare Smith plays all the roles and the actors of the Techtonic Theatre Project split them up. However, the role of the ensemble extends backstage in “Let Me Down Easy”, because although Deveare Smith is the sole actor onstage, she is not the only person involved. There are people backstage bringing her props, directors helping with technical aspects, lighting designers, and people helping her sort through the literature in her initial stages. In that sense, it is much like the ensemble effort of “The Laramie Project.” However, when it comes to performance, the lights are on Anna Deveare Smith, and her only, as she becomes each of the characters in her one-woman play.

SOURCES:
http://www.theatre-wales.co.uk/news/newsdetail.asp?newsID=2529
http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:FnDEFu3u7dMJ:www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/37979/theatre-practice/verbatim-theatre.html+techniques+of+verbatim+theatre&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us