Everything You Touch—Theatre Vertigo—SE Portland

          “Eye of the Beholder”

    This gutsy drama is written by Sheila Callaghan and directed by Jessie Hirschhorn.  It is playing at the Shoebox Theatre, 2110 SE 10^th Ave., through March 28^th.  For more information, go to their site at www.theatrevertigo.org

    Body image…self-image…what the public expects/perceives…they are Not one and the same.  There are some rather good films from the past on this subject…Looker, Perfect (w/John Travolta & Jaime Lee Curtis) and the excellent thriller, by John Frankenheimer, Seconds (w/Rock Hudson).  Even Jerry Lewis’s excellent performance in, The Nutty Professor, about an inept, goofy teacher trying to impress a girl, by changing into a romantic hunk, but the inner man changes as well, and not for the better.  And who can forget Serling’s masterpiece on, The Twilight Zone, from which my title is taken.  All cautionary tales about preserving/enhancing the “Body Beautiful.”

 

    When, in reality, we are all equal in the end…just dust-huggers.  But one wouldn’t know that by the amount of attention and money we spend on trying to be someone we’re not.  Nothing will ever match natural beauty, or the glow from the beauty within…and that costs you nothing!

    Jess (Kaia Maarja Hillier) is an unhappy, young woman.  She is overweight, her mother, who she’s estranged from, is slowly dying and her career world of computers, gives her little pleasure.  She does have a pseudo-boyfriend, Lewis (R. David Wyllie), who is devoted to her and accepts her just the way she is.  But she lacks self-respect and so she remakes her world over with a boyfriend (Aaron Cooper Swor) that will remake her over, with his minions/models (Wimberley Marshall, Jess Perry & Justin Charles) into the image of herself that she wants.

    Meanwhile, a struggling, arrogant designer, Victor (Swor, again), is trying to make a name for himself in the fashion world.  His muse/girlfriend, Esme (Adriana Gantzer), has come up with topical ideas for wear, with a military theme, or even disco (as this is the age for that) but he rejects them in favor of a country girl, Louella (Shandi Muff), who he’s taken a shine to.  The look is to be a plain, dept. store image of a person, with no frills.  Both Victor’s and Jess’s worlds are strangely connected, but are on a collision course with reality.  To witness the outcome, see it for yourself.

    Hillier expertly presents a roller-coaster of emotions as Jess.  Swor is his oily best as Victor, a man who you love to hate.  Wyllie breaks your heart, as a good man, “who loves, not wisely, [perhaps], but too well.”  Muff is all innocence and fun, until she becomes aware of the price it takes to be popular.  And Gantzer is alluring, a good blend between beauty on the outside and a good soul on the inside.  And Hirschhorn assembles it all together smoothly, like fitting pieces into a giant, jigsaw puzzle.

    I recommend this play.  If you do choose to see it, please tell them Dennis sent you.

--DJS