Etta and Ella at REDCAT
story. Troupe has respect for Etta but he had forgotten about the sisters in recent years, who weren’t prominent anymore in his circle.
He recalled seeing Etta, who was once beautiful, on Broadway at the bookstore. She looked hopeless and her dress was careless. A huge contrast from the dazzling suits she and her sister used to wear.
He had been surprised to discover
Etta was a member of the Vanishing Literary Club. Troupe recalls how the successful sisters had written together and over time, it became impossible to distinguish their experiences, thus creating their turmoil. The sisters write from experiences in their own lives — and accuse the other of plagiarizing from each other. They use the same character names and they even fight over the same name, Suzanne, for their characters. They had both planned to write separate books about their brother and each had the idea of holding imaginary conversations with him.
Both wear their hair in an “upswept style” and they even wear the same costume, a floral black and white smock and white sneakers. Later, the sisters make one costume change, into identical black evening dresses.
Taking this all in, curiosity overwhelms you. Is Etta haunted by her sister, this apparition? Was she murdered? Does Ella exist or was she created in Etta’s mind? Is she part of Etta’s psyche or a character in a story of hers?
Early in the play, you’re still not certain about any of this. These queries usher you deeper into the events that have formed Etta’s precarious subconscious. A rabbit hole that becomes the hook, leaving you determined to discover, if not answers, then perhaps an understanding.
I mention this to note the novelty at the core of Kennedy’s dreamlike, intense play and Cole’s harnessing that juxtaposition into this hybrid stage/ film noir production. Cole’s cinematic approach provides an intricate blend of monologue, dialogue, voiceover and prose in a work that is part experimental play, part narrative thriller.
Through his film noir, Cole has created another character by way of an on stage screen. Just like the movies, but the screen is cloaked in a sheer, pleated curtain adding to the dreamlike narrative where subtle emotions are perceptible. The actors (Tori Danner - Ella, Sarajean Francois - Etta and Wesley T. Jones - Troupe) perform narration on film that, at times, suddenly transform into real time action — on stage.
To experience
Cole’s effective use of dual mediums with seamless technicality and the actors’ fluidity between stage and screen — highlighted via musical score/ soundtrack — unleashes the imagination. Indeed, this experience embodies theater anew through intimate and multifaceted encounters.
Monty Cole is an award-winning theater and film writer-director based in Chicago, Illinois.
He has directed for The Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf, Center Theatre Group, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, CalArts Center for New Performance, Alley Theatre, American Blues Theater, and many others. He is an Artist in Residence at CalArts Center for New Performance, a fellow at Hermitage Artist Retreat and a research scholar of the Bridge to Faculty at University of Illinois Chicago.
“Adrienne Kennedy is a masterful writer who creates beautiful puzzles, mysteries, nightmares, personal exorcisms that exist within their own understanding of time,” said Cole in the program notes. “For this world premiere production of Etta and Ella on
the Upper West Side, the creative team was interested in how we could build an experience that honored Adrienne Kennedy’s unique storytelling in a way that hasn’t been done before.”
Adrienne Kennedy is the recipient of an Obie Award for Sleep Deprivation
Chamber, which she co-authored with her son Adam. Other awards include a Guggenheim Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Lila Wallace Reader’s Digest Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Literature, the 1990 American Book Award, and induction into the Theater Hall of Fame in 2018, for Lifetime Achievement in the American Theater.
Details: centerfornewperformance.org and redcat.org/events/2023/etta-andella