BEING EVELYN DICK
Catherine Janes takes on the role of Hamilton’s most famous femme fatale
Catherine Janes tackles role of Hamilton’s femme fatale
“I LIKE HER. I HAVE TO. I MEAN, I HAVE TO BE HER.”
Catherine Janes, 28, is talking about Hamilton’s notorious sex cat Evelyn Dick. Accused killer-diller, Dick peeked out from under the veil of her latest hat and grinned at life. Her taboo behaviour with wealthy Hamilton socialites in 1946 made her a scandalous but marketable commodity.
Janes laughs, waving blood-red nails across the table. “She used affection to get what she wanted. It was all part of the act.”
Janes knows about acts. She also understands the art of tease. Recently returned from Korea where she taught English and danced on the burlesque stage, Janes is a smart, vivacious woman who can laugh at life.
“I went to Korea to teach. Later, in Seoul, I joined a burlesque troupe called Thrills and Chills. Why? Because I liked the idea of it. My experience there helps me immensely finding the secret heart of Evelyn Dick.”
Janes wasn’t involved in the grind and grunt stuff that passes for exotic dance today.
“We kept it traditional,” she says. “We wore the corsets, the bustles, the gloves and the stockings. You know, the things you associate with someone classy like Gypsy Rose Lee. The slow roll of the stocking, the swing of the glove, the interaction with the audience, smile meeting smile; it all mattered, everything from the way you crossed your legs to the way you looked in the customers’ eyes.
“I called myself Kitty Carlisle.” Janes says. “I fell in love with the glamour of it all, the makeup, the costumes, you know. Expats came to enjoy the show. Korean men came to giggle. It was an experience.”
Back in Hamilton, Janes is acting in her first play.
“I use what I know. And I just love Evelyn’s time, the ’40s. I love the red nail polish, the red lipstick, those old movies, those old songs, the smoke from the cigarettes. I guess I’m living in the wrong era.”
That said, Janes had to be taught how to drag on one of those evil white weeds for her role in the play.
“The smoking is important. Think of those Hollywood movies with those beautiful femme fatales.”
She pulls out her iPod and shows off photos of her favourite, smouldering Rita Hayworth, that bombshell who played scorching Gilda in 1946.
In between jobs just now, Janes is enjoying the chance to be someone else, at least on the stage.
“I love the process of finding a real person, reflecting shades of her being. We took a tour round all the places where Evelyn’s story took place. Some things are gone, but we know how they looked from news photos; the Majestic Restaurant, the garage on Carrick Street, the area on the Mountain where the torso of John Dick was found. Those things make it real.”
Janes believes there was mystery about Evelyn Dick. That’s why she’s still a Hamilton icon.
“She could still be alive. She’d be pretty old. But whenever Douglas Rodger’s play is produced, people wonder if she’s out there in the audience.”
“As an actor I think you have to choose. Was she guilty, or innocent?”
Janes grew up in Burlington and went to Nelson High School. Later she studied criminal justice and public policy at the University of Guelph. She went to Korea to teach and pay off her student loan. The burlesque was a sideline.
Janes looks at those long nails for a moment more. A sly smile creeps across her face.
“I like to flirt,” she says with a bit of a shrug. “That was Evelyn Dick’s way of dealing with the world. Yes, people saw her in two lights, a promiscuous whore and maybe a murderess. In the end though, I think she was someone just looking for love.”