Lady Lay wakes Atlanta audiences
It is no shock that 7 Stages has been around for 35 years. After coming off of Angry Fags success, the U.S. premiere of Lydia Stryk’s Lady Lay has proven why this Atlanta theater institution has staying power. 7 Stages is consistently true to their mission and does what all contemporary producing theaters should do: fill a season with innovative fresh work and hire great thinkers to do it justice. Lady Lay is no exception and amongst a slow drizzle to the end of everyone’s seasons around town, this is no time to start summer early and miss out.
Lady Lay is set in Berlin amongst the revolutionary era of the Berlin Wall coming down. The backdrop is the political revolution, but the center of the story is the personal revolution that takes place inside of the main character, MariAnne, as she moves from a humdrum life of files, lines and not-listening to clients in a repeated cycle, to being sparked alive by Bob Dylan and his music.
Although accompanied by other characters on stage, such as Dylan himself (played by Del Hamilton), Stacy Melich (MariAnne) plows through an hour and a half monologue of inner and outer conversations. She is the earth that all the other actors rotate around as she finds just what her rotational path in life should be. It is a major feat to seemingly pull off a one woman show without ever tiring or tripping. Luckily for Melich, the company around her kept the mood, revamped energy, and gave her exactly what was needed to make this show complete. The ensemble (Jed Drummond, Tara Ochs, Faye Allen and Olubajo Sonubi) dodged and caught fast moving scenery, and shifted characters (even broke out in Dylan songs) within scenes without ever losing the careful footwork of well trained and rehearsed thespians. Jed Drummond’s voice that accompanied so many of MariAnne’s most pivotal moments needs to be heard by all. And Tara Ochs’ perfect timing and range hinted at her improv background.
The creation of work like this boils down to making incredible choices when it comes to the theater’s season, and then finding the right people to truly make these shows shine even brighter than they did on the page. Heidi S. Howard, director and woman behind taking risks and making sure that theater stays in the realm of bravery and play, kept the chain of choice making going by working with the set designer, Nadia Morgan, to create such a new theater experience. Forget over realist, wallpapered sets and Ikea designed rooms. Lady Lay employs the idea that furniture should crash, fall and props should bungee cord from the sky. All involved took what Stryk gave them on the page and made it so each movement, light, song, and slam to the floor was a manifestation of what was going on within MariAnne and the world around her. This was one of those rare shows that you leave saying, “that was fucking cool.” And you totally mean it.
Lady Lay, like all of 7 Stages shows, is a do-not-miss-this kind of theatrical production. Running till May 19, and capping off their current season, Lady Lay show times and tickets are available at 7stages.0rg.
