 |
| Lawrence And Frieda |
That iconic figure, the Venus of Willendorf, is perhaps 25,000 years old, but her "earth mother" image is timeless. Woman as the fertile bearer and nurturer of humankind, with the power to both inspire and protect men, especially, is an ongoing symbol in Western literature.
Novelist D.H. Lawrence didn't need a symbol, because he had his Venus in the flesh -- Frieda, his wife of 16 years. She was his helpmate, literary adviser and sexual mentor during his most productive years as a novelist, starting with "Sons and Lovers" in 1913 and ending with "Lady Chatterly's Lover" in 1928.
He was six years younger than the 32-year-old German-born member of the von Richthofen clan and showed promise, but no success, as a writer. It was a gamble for both of them, one that paid off, but not without heavy costs along the way.
Their peripatetic life together was scandalous and outside the norms of conventional society of the post-World War I era -- rich material for drama.
However, it is Frieda's life before and after Lawrence -- he died in 1930 -- that is the focus of "A Moon to Dance By," a new play opening at the Pittsburgh Playhouse Repertory Company Friday.
Playing the redoubtable and often outrageous character is prize-winning actress Jane Alexander, veteran of Broadway, Hollywood and TV. She also was chairwoman of the National Endowment of the Arts, where she led the fight in the mid-'90s to maintain funding and Congressional support for the arts community.
Her equally accomplished husband, Edwin Sherin, directs the debut production written by Thom Thomas, a Western Pennsylvania native and former artistic director of the Playhouse.
The star quality is unusually bright for an untried play staged in Pittsburgh, but both Alexander and Sherin are as enthusiastic as a couple doing an O'Neill play on Broadway.
"The reason for doing this play is about how it presents relationships with a clarity and authenticity," said Alexander last week in the couple's pleasantly furnished apartment in Shadyside, where they are staying for the play's run. "Of course, there's also the enormous presence of Frieda Lawrence. She was an extraordinary woman, truly ahead of her time."
Unlike the tall, long-haired actress, Frieda was a short, stout woman with wild, tousled hair in 1939, the year of the play and also of Alexander's birth.
"It's up to the costume designer to make me look the part," the actress said, smiling. "Frieda did bulk up as she got older, but when she was young she had that hourglass figure. Zoftig, you'd call it."
As an actress who played both the wife and mother of Franklin Roosevelt in TV productions, winning an Emmy in the process, Alexander knows the demands of playing historical figures.
She also does her homework. As she and Sherin, who directed her in her first Broadway play, "The Great White Hope," in 1968, discussed Frieda's life, Alexander demonstrated a well-researched knowledge of her character.
Frieda and Lawrence met in Nottingham, England, in the spring of 1912, and "within 20 minutes, they were in bed," goes the legend of Frieda's extraordinary allure and earthy sexiness. She quickly left her husband, Ernest Weekley -- Lawrence's professor at Nottingham University College -- and their three children for the gaunt, pale writer with the haunting eyes.
The play is set after Lawrence's death, at Frieda's ranch near Taos, N.M., where she lives with lover Angelo Ravagli (played by Robert Cuccioli), an Italian army officer 15 years her junior.
That relationship is worth a play in itself, but Thomas confines his two-act drama to several days during the visit of Frieda's son Montague Weekley (Gareth Saxe).
"Here we have the mother, son and her lover meeting just days before World War II breaks out," Alexander points out. "Imagine the possibilities."
"It's about choices," Sherin added, "about choosing between your children and your lover. Frieda loved her children, but she also made a major commitment to Lawrence. The play explores this [issue] with great insight."
He added that Ravagli also left a wife and three children for Frieda soon after Lawrence died. They eventually married, but after her death in 1956, he returned to his wife in Italy.
Although several biographies refer to the reunion between mother and son, there are few details of the visit. Weekley was 39 and a museum curator in London when he reached Taos, then an arduous journey.
Their visit was brief, lasting from July 2 to July 5. Thomas unearthed the details from letters and travel documents as part of his extensive research.
"Certainly, throughout the play, the presence of Lawrence hangs over the characters," said Sherin. "Frieda remained emotionally close to him even though he was dead for nine years."
With Ravagli's help, Frieda brought Lawrence's ashes from France where he had died and installed them in a memorial on the ranch.
(Several legends claim that either the ashes really came from a fireplace because Ravagli couldn't get them out of France or that he mistakenly left them at the railroad station after arriving in New Mexico.)
Read More
Here is a link for some of best adult Romance Books ever written
No comments:
Post a Comment