{"id":72669,"date":"2021-10-25T14:33:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-25T18:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=72669"},"modified":"2021-10-25T14:43:15","modified_gmt":"2021-10-25T18:43:15","slug":"scrutiny-luminous-final-performances-martha-henry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2021\/10\/25\/scrutiny-luminous-final-performances-martha-henry\/","title":{"rendered":"SCRUTINY | The Luminous Final Performances Of Martha Henry"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(L-R) Mamie Zwettler, Martha Henry and Lucy Peacock in Three Tall Women (Photo: V. Tony Hauser)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My last encounter with the sublime artistry of actor Martha Henry: Stratford Festival\/Three Tall Women by Edward Albee, directed by Diana Leblanc, Studio Theatre, Aug. 10 to Oct. 9.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

How utterly ironic that Martha Henry\u2019s final performance<\/a> on this mortal coil, was in a play about dying.<\/p>\n

Edward Albee\u2019s Pulitzer Prize winning Three Tall Women<\/em> (1991), features as its central character, (known only as A), an imperious, caustic, bitter, foulmouthed, bigoted old woman who is terminally ill. It is the type of role an actor loves to sink their teeth into, and it was right up legendary Henry\u2019s alley. To say she chewed up the scenery is an understatement.<\/p>\n

Albee based the character of A on his estranged adoptive mother (who famously cut the playwright out of her will). He left home at 18, disgusted by the smug, self-satisfied, narrow-minded and entitled lifestyle of his super rich parents and their friends. In the play, derogatory ethnic and racial slurs shockingly roll off A\u2019s tongue like a matter of course. Apparently, Albee\u2019s mother could not accept his homosexuality, and A\u2019s homophobia joins her list of prejudices.<\/p>\n

Initially, Three Tall Women<\/em> was slated for Stratford\u2019s 2020 season, but COVID put an end to that. The pandemic, however, proved to be a boon to Henry, who had just been diagnosed with cancer. The lull allowed Henry to undergo treatment, which gave her this last gasp at theatrical greatness. She passed away a mere 12 days after Three Tall Women<\/em> closed.<\/p>\n

In the first act, I noticed that Henry seemed particularly frail, and throughout her performance were some almost imperceptible pauses in the rhythm of her delivery, but the actor was 83 after all, so you don\u2019t expect total perfection. That Henry had memorized this huge acting role is an amazing feat in and of itself.<\/p>\n

In the second act, I was surprised to see Henry in a wheelchair that was not mandated in the play. Clearly she was not in the best of health. I found her manoeuvring of the wheelchair around the tiny thrust stage in the Studio Theatre a bit unwieldy, but then, I did not know about the cancer. Now I\u2019m a bit ashamed at my irritation.<\/p>\n

Albee\u2019s play is fascinating. In the first act, we meet A and her middle-aged caregiver B (Lucy Peacock), as well as C (Mamie Zwettler), a 20-something representative from A\u2019s lawyer\u2019s office. Any play that features both Henry and Peacock is a gift of the gods, but Zwettler held her own nicely against these Stratford giants.<\/p>\n

In the second act, A, B and C become one person, showing A at three stages in her life \u2014 young, middle-aged and elderly. Their conversation is brilliant as C learns what is ahead of her, while B looks both backward to the past, and forward to the future. A remains the incorrigible, acerbic woman that we met in the first act. And, oh yes, there is a silent young man, aka Edward Albee (Alexander Iles), who has been summoned to visit his dying mother.<\/p>\n

Henry dominated the stage. She presented a woman who has learned everything and yet nothing. Albee\u2019s portrait of A is frank and dispassionate. This is who A is, unvarnished and unmasked, and Henry enveloped herself in A, showing her vulnerability, but never softening so much as an inch. There is no forgiveness in A, which made Henry\u2019s performance so richly layered. It was a warts and all portrait.<\/p>\n