Presented by Flaxworks
@ Holden Street Theatres – The Studio
FRIDAY 2nd March (until March 11)

“You could put all the talent I had into your left eye and still not suffer from impaired vision” – Veronica Lake.

Veronica Lake was a 1940s Hollywood star. Starring in a string of hits, and having a hairstyle arguably more iconic than ‘the Rachel’, her future seemed set. However, her popularity faded as the decade went on, and she gradually slipped into oblivion until her death from complications of alcoholism in the early 1970s. Her story is littered with husbands, booze, failed Academy Award attempts, and a narrowly averted plane crash.

Before Friday, I had never heard of her.

Drowning in Veronica Lake is a one-woman show. Starring Alex Ellis, and written by Phil Ormbsby, it has been doing the Fringe Festival circuit since early 2011. I chose this show because for me, the premise of an old Hollywood biography framed in the supernatural was too tempting to miss.

Walking in to the theatre I immediately noticed two things; one, the audience was about 90% made up of women, and two, it was hard to see where the ‘stage’ ended, and the seating began. This lack of distinction between audience and performance space I think was a real asset to the style of the show, making it feel more as though you were being told someone’s life story, and not merely watching an actor recounting lines.

From the beginning, Ellis is on stage; she doesn’t really have a choice. She stands with her back to the audience, costumed in a long gown which extends down far longer than an ordinary garment, forming a large, fabric circle cementing her in place. People who enjoy literal depictions of metaphors will appreciate the fact that she really is “drowning in Veronica Lake”. Other than the actress and the lake of fabric, there is nothing else immediately visible on stage.

While the show is a bit slow to start, I think this is due to the fact that it takes a while to become acclimatised with the character and with the story-telling style of performance. It is structured chronologically – starting with Lake’s (then named Constance Keane) first casting in a film at the age of 17. Throughout, we are shown the destructive relationship between Lake and her mother (both played by Ellis), are given hints about a darker undercurrent of pre-existing mental disease and get glimpses into a patchy childhood of expulsions, underage beauty contests and possible abuse. We finish up with the reason for the title; who really is Veronica Lake, and is she slowly drowning out Constance?

Lake had a reputation of being difficult to work with, earning her nicknames including “The Bitch” and the highly intellectual and witty “Moronica Lake”. Ellis depicts these aspects of the character with an underlying edge of vulnerability and child-like innocence. She is constantly ‘name-dropping’ and then is ‘surprised’ when the audience doesn’t recognise who she is talking about.

The performance  is very clearly set in the now, with Lake speaking from ‘beyond the grave’. Her descent into alcoholism, cynicism and depression is subtle, and the violence and unhappiness of some of her marriages is performed in such a masterful way that I left the theatre wondering how I had such vivid images in my mind despite having only just essentially been told a story by one woman on a stage.

I’m generally dubious about one-person shows. It is difficult to hold the attention of a room full of people and remain believable and in character. However, Drowning in Veronica Lake manages to take an interesting concept and present it in an accessible and entertaining way. Ultimately we are left wondering – is fame worth the human toll?