The irreverent
artist, Salvador Dali, sizzled in his own right; but throw in the fire of his
passionate wife and muse, Gala, and you can well understand how a clock could
have melted in their presence. (google: "The Persistence of Memory" by
Dali)
In a powerful
one-act/one person play sponsored by Michael and Kathy Bush, owners of Home
Resource, (a showroom of mouth watering contemporary furniture in
Sarasota) the Blue Scarf Collective of Tampa presented My Unspeakable
Confessions: Gala Dali Declines to Explain Herself, beautifully
written by Heather L. Jones, to sold-out crowds on Nov.
25th and 28th.
This is Home
Resource's first collaboration with the Dali Museum and Blue Scarf Collective.
Looks like there may be a repeat January 2012 performance at HR, which I
suggest you run out and see.
Roxanne Fay
brilliantly played Gala, Salvador Dali's charismatic, devoted and headstrong
seductress wife. Tarot cards, a favorite pastime of Gala's, were read, one by one,
to cleverly introduce the chapters of Gala's personal story, an act of dramatic
creation itself. The lady did as she pleased.
Through Ms. Fay's
moving performance, we got up close and personal to Gala's all consuming love
for Dali (and herself) and his equally intense connection to her. She
wished to be everything to him: lover, wife, mother, collaborator and
inspiration. We came to understand how this rapport completely defined each of
them and allowed their creative and personal lives to flourish. Like a
plant needs water, Gala told us that without the intensity of love, she was
'invisible", a state simply unacceptable to her. (She seemed to have lots
of attractive young men doing their best to help keep her in view.)
Ms. Fay's powerful
incarnation was by turns, admirable and arrogant, playing with the audience's
instinct to pigeonhole Gala. This made it hard to know whether Gala was
likable, a raving egomaniac or both. And in the presence of such a force of
nature, who cares? One thing was certain- to live in "Galaland"
was not for the faint of heart.
It was shocking to
hear Ms. Fay drop Gala's Russian accent after the performance ended. She so
thoroughly inhabited this role it was almost impossible to imagine her as
anyone else.
Adding to the
pleasure of this performance was that I watched it while seated in a Charles
Eames chair with an Eero Saarinen side table nearby for my wine glass.
Call me a snob, but even if you're not a style freak, just try sitting
down in an Eames chair for five minutes and I promise, you'll never want to
watch a play in any other way again.
Looking
around the showroom at the rapt audience strewn about on such elegant designer
pieces, I felt as if we were at a glamorous party Gala herself, might have
thrown. It wouldn't have been that different than this evening; I'm sure
she was always center stage, riveting her guests with one outrageous tale after
the next, as she scanned the crowd for a handsome admirer who could help keep her
visible to herself and others.
My Unspeakable Confessions: Gala Dali Declines to Explain Herself, written by Heather L. Jones, performed by Roxanne Fay. Ms. Jones and Ms. Fay (with Aleshea Harris) are the founders of Blue Scarf Collective, a writers' and artists' collaborative in the Tampa Bay area. Find them on Facebook.
Home Resource, Contemporary Furniture Showroom, 741 Central Avenue, Sarasota; www.homeresource.com
Please read my other blog: http://whatdogsreallythink.blogspot.com/
| http://whatdogsreallythink.blogspot.com/ |
