Dorothy Parker’s Sweet Release of Death
Reviewed by Annie Waters
This is a one-woman show about unrequited love…and unrequited death. Lucy Gransbury’s debauched Dorothy Parker is gearing up for one hell of a last night on earth, and you’re invited.
With her acid wit and believable New York drawl, Gransbury launches immediately into her grizzly subject matter – that is, the imminent suicide of her morbidly depressed character, Dorothy. In a resonant alto voice, she croons original songs in early 20th century style, all absolutely fixated on the banality of life and the toxic allure of death. Based on the life of a real writer, renowned in the 1920s for her acerbic sense of humour and black poetry, Dorothy Parker comes to life again (the last thing she would have wanted!) in the tiny Angaston Chapel.
Despite the rather depressing themes of the show, Gransbury manages to keep the crowd ticking along with quick asides and well-timed audience participation. Her insidious glares couple nicely with her sardonic one-liners (“Life isn’t plain terrible. Life is fancy terrible.”) and it is easy to see that Gransbury is very at home inside this gloomy character. By far the highlight of the night is her vicious dissection of a ‘Winnie the Pooh’ story, as she strips all the fun from the child’s tale and reveals its inanities. For me, this summed up her character perfectly: a woman who could find no joy in a story that is meant to appeal to the child within us all.
After several healthy measures of gin, we begin to get to the bottom of Dorothy’s despair. At this point in the evening, the mood becomes more sombre, as the audience begins to realise that there is real pain behind the flippancy with which death is dealt in this show. Singing a cover of ‘That’s all’, made famous by Nat King Cole in the 50s, Dorothy brings tears to the eyes of many in the house. Perhaps her crazed death-wish begins to seem not so crazy to some.
You know what they say, third time lucky; but does Dorothy succeed in her quest to hear those “three little words…RIP”? You’ll have to get along and see.
Dorothy Parker’s Sweet Release of Death, Angaston’s Old Union Chapel, Mar 6 to Mar 8
