NEW YORK - Outlandish eyelashes. Bandanna headgear. Colourful gypsylike outfits. And, oh yes, creator of those extraordinary abstract-expressionistic boxes made out of discarded wood.
A bare-bones description of sculptor Louise Nevelson perhaps. But what was she really like?
That question becomes the subject of "Edward Albee's Occupant," the playwright's fanciful, fascinating meditation on not only Nevelson, but on the cult of celebrity and the impossibility of ever really knowing if you are getting the truth about a famous person or not.
Albee's play, receiving what's being called a world-premiere production at off-Broadway's Signature Theatre Company, is not strictly a one-woman show, despite the star wattage of Mercedes Ruehl as Nevelson. The evening takes the form of an interview, with an unnamed, enthusiastic questioner, played by Larry Bryggman, asking the woman about her life - after she is dead.
The two have a contentious question-and-answer relationship in this lively production, which has been directed by Pam MacKinnon. He's obviously a fan, and knows more about the minutiae of Nevelson's life than she does. Contradictions abound. He asks, "Do facts mean anything to you?" "They can be useful," she replies.
A few of the more basic ones: The woman was born in the Ukraine; pogroms forced her Jewish family to flee; grew up in Rockland, Maine, where her father proved financially successful; married (unhappily) into a wealthy New York family; had one son; struggled mightily for success before finally making it in the art world.
But Albee is after more than just facts here. He celebrates Nevelson in all her persona, real and embellished. "I'm a lot of people, honey, and I shift all the time," she tells the interviewer, alluding to her different public and private faces. To pull off this expansive personality, you need an actress who can fill the stage - and Ruehl does.
From the distraught wife in Albee's "The Goat" to the lusty heroine of Tennessee Williams' "The Rose Tattoo," Ruehl has excelled on Broadway at portraying big emotions and larger-than-life ladies. Nevelson fills the bill.
Dressed by designer Jane Greenwood in re-creations of the sculptor's outrageous garb, Albee's version of the sculptor is never at a loss for words, and defyingly nonconformist. "You don't fit in - so you make everything fit to you," she says at one point during the play.
Yet Albee celebrates the woman as a serious artist, too. His Nevelson is fiercely defiant in the face of rejection, an artistic wilderness that lasted some two decades. Yet she always believed in her worth as a sculptor. She did not seek fame, she says, only recognition for what she has done.
Bryggman offers yeoman support in a deliberately non-showy role. He is the perfect companion for a woman who perhaps was her own best creation.
"Occupant" originally was seen in 2002 at the Signature with Anne Bancroft in the title role. When Bancroft got sick, the play never officially opened. Ruehl and company have given Albee's vision of Nevelson a marvellous second chance.
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