Marlene Dietrich was a diva, star, bi-sexual trouser-wearing femme-fatale, and in this 80 minute show (advertised as 60 minutes), performer Patricia Hartshorne presents us with a potted version of Dietrich's life in the spotlight.
The King's Arms theatre had been cleverly and realistically converted into a cabaret space with the audience seated at tables covered in black tablecloths, red candles, and carnations. It was a little smoky too which hepled create a lovely ambiance, taking us back to the heady days of between-war cabarets.
The show itself was part history lesson, part Dietrich impersonation, with many of Dietrich's more famous songs sung in between the monologue.
We learned that she was born in Berlin in 1901, that she made some films in Germany before being lured to America and Hollywood to star in films there too. We learned that Adolf Hitler was obsessed with her and offered her a huge amount of money and freedom of the film studios just to bring her back "into the fold, where she belongs"; but she defiantly refused and then went ahead to apply for and receive US citizenship. We learned that she had many lovers (of both sexes) but her longest love affair was not with a person but a country, France. We learned about her film years, her later years as she reinvented herself as a cabaret artiste, and Hartshorne touched very briefly on her later life as a recluse, living alone and sad in a flat in Paris until her death in 1992.
Where Hartshorne scores highly in this original theatre piece is her ability to morph seamlessly into Marlene Dietrich, looking and sounding remarkably similar to the LGBTQ icon herself. The show however never really seemed to come out of first gear; the entire 80 minutes was performed at the same level, speed, and intensity, which, if you were not a hardened Dietrich devotee, made your mind wander somewhat. There were also several references in this show to other, larger, more prestigious venues Hartshorne had played, and the longer, fuller, version of this show about Dietrich, which all felt a little like self-promotion rather than being relevant to the production she was actually performing.
The show itself was part history lesson, part Dietrich impersonation, with many of Dietrich's more famous songs sung in between the monologue.
We learned that she was born in Berlin in 1901, that she made some films in Germany before being lured to America and Hollywood to star in films there too. We learned that Adolf Hitler was obsessed with her and offered her a huge amount of money and freedom of the film studios just to bring her back "into the fold, where she belongs"; but she defiantly refused and then went ahead to apply for and receive US citizenship. We learned that she had many lovers (of both sexes) but her longest love affair was not with a person but a country, France. We learned about her film years, her later years as she reinvented herself as a cabaret artiste, and Hartshorne touched very briefly on her later life as a recluse, living alone and sad in a flat in Paris until her death in 1992.
Where Hartshorne scores highly in this original theatre piece is her ability to morph seamlessly into Marlene Dietrich, looking and sounding remarkably similar to the LGBTQ icon herself. The show however never really seemed to come out of first gear; the entire 80 minutes was performed at the same level, speed, and intensity, which, if you were not a hardened Dietrich devotee, made your mind wander somewhat. There were also several references in this show to other, larger, more prestigious venues Hartshorne had played, and the longer, fuller, version of this show about Dietrich, which all felt a little like self-promotion rather than being relevant to the production she was actually performing.
The show was educative and interesting; a very real insight to Marlene Dietrich, who was, for a certain generation durng the war years, 'Our own Lili Marlene'.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 10.9.21
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