Wonder: Questions and Amazement at Gertrude and Alice 

 

Written By: The Independent Aunties (Karin Randoja, Evalyn Parry, and Anna Chatterton). Performed at Buddies in Bad Times Sept 15-Oct 7 2018. 

 

I could tell you what to expect at Buddies in Bad Times’ Gertrude and Alice, but I feel like that would be spoiling the fun. Whose fun? Somebody’s fun: the playwrights/actors’, yours, or Gertrude’s Stein’s I’m not entirely sure whose, but there is a distinct impression that I will be spoiling it for somebody. Part of the charm, and experience of Gertrude and Alice is the way it surprises you. With devoted writing, and skilled performances, Gertrude and Alice is an odd, queer play that make you think, pulls on the heartstrings and creates a sense of wonder.  

 

So what can I tell you? The premise of Gertrude and Alice is that Gertrude Stein (Evalyn Parry) and Alice Toklas(Anna Chatterton) have come back to the 21st century to see how the world has remembered them. Quickly the problem becomes apparent:  you’ve probably never heard of Gertrude Stein have you? It is not necessary to know who Gertrude Stein is in the play because she will tell you, but for the insatiably curious: Stein was a writer in the early-mid 20th century perhaps best known for hosting gorgeous salons, and her friendships with artists such as Picasso, and Hemingway. Yeah that Picasso, and that Hemingway. Gertrude was also a lesbian, and lived out her life with the devotion of Alice Toklas the play’s other character in this two-hander production. The play charts their life together showing both the narrative of their lives (the where, when, who) but also exploring their relationship and love for each other (the why, and how to this narrative). 

 

Gertrude and Alice tell us their life story in their own words. This is a play that is in love with words. Gertrude Stein loved words, and Alice loved her words. The Independent Aunties do too if their repeated use of Gertrude’s writing throughout the play is any indication.  Gertrude Stein comes back to life in the Buddies theatre as her words haunt, and terrorize the audience who act as a third character playing off of, and being played off of by Chatterton, and Parry. Gertrude’s writing is an aspect of the play that is perhaps most fair to categorize as a matter of taste. She was an experimental writer, and those unused to, or not expecting her torment of words (and she was tormented by words) will probably feel as I did during the parts of the play that quote her directly. That is to say: lost, or at the very least scrambling for a map only to find Gertrude has set it on fire, and is using the shadows from the flame to create the appropriate dramatic lighting for her next speech. However, the use by the Independent Aunties of Gertrude's actual words is an uncompromisable element of the play. Time moves, and stays still in this play; it goes forward and is turned back all by the power of Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas’ words. My advice to future audience members would be not to worry too much about understanding what Gertrude says. While I can’t speak to the experience of seeing this play as a fan of Gertrude Stein I can say that as someone who did not know, or even still does not understand all her work the beauty of this production is how it creates questions, and doesn’t answer them all. It is OK to leave the theatre wondering. 

 

The set of Gertrude and Alice designed by Sherri Hay is beautiful, but again to tell you about it in advance would be to spoil, and I can not bear to steal that sense of wonder. What I can speak to in describing the charm of this play is the performances of Chatterton and Parry. Chatterton’s Alice is the heart of the play, and the heart of Gertrude. Her love for the woman cuts through Gertrude’s more cloudy intellectual storms, and Chatterton’s portrayal of her devotion emotionally anchors the play among the tempest of Gertrude’s words. Tolkas’ main role in the play is to love, and for an actor it can be challenging to play that without it being over the top, unconvincing, and/or sickening. Chatterton is none of these things playing a devoted, and fierce woman who while characterized by the love of another speaks for herself. Parry has almost the opposite challenge with Gertrude a character who is very much defined by her own ego, and intellect. It can be difficult to make such a character sympathetic, and yet in the same way that Sherlock Holmes is made likable through John Watson, Parry’s chemistry with Chatterton endears Gertrude to the audience. Taking advantage of some choice moments of vulnerability Parry summons to life a Gertrude Stein that the audience can believe Alice Toklas loved. Love, words, and the love of words stitch together this intelligent, and heartwarming play that is queerly surprising leaving one with questions, and a sense of wonder.