Invisible Theatre’s production of Matthew Lombardo’s “Looped” is an insightful, well-acted glimpse into the life of Tallulah Bankhead, the foul-mouthed, hard-drinking, promiscuous stage and screen actor from the golden age of Hollywood.
Invisible Theatre opened “Looped” on Tuesday, Sept. 14 as part of its “Good as Gold” 50th Anniversary Season. “Looped” continues through Sept. 26.
Bankhead, the raspy-voiced actress who called everyone “dahling” has been called a brilliant actor but her party-hard lifestyle and addictions brought her notoriety and often overshadowed her career.
Bankhead, who died in 1968, had about 300 film, stage, television and radio credits. Two of her roles most likely recognizable for today’s viewers are cynical journalist Constance Porter in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Lifeboat” (1944) and as the Black Widow on the “Batman” TV series (1966).
Playwright Lombardo used an actual incident in the summer of 1965 at a Los Angeles recording studio as inspiration: An eight-hour session to record a single line of dialogue, a loop, to be inserted into and synced with her filmed performance in “Die! Die! My Darling!”. That’s right: One line, eight hours.
Lombardo listened to the recording of the session. With plenty of poetic license, he drilled down and shaped the session into two scenes, a compelling 85 minutes of snappy, quick quips and catty, comedic comments as Bankhead drank, sniffed cocaine and smoked and was repeatedly unable to deliver the line.
Without being history-heavy, Lombardo dips into Bankhead’s background, her outlook on life, and her relationships with her sister and other actors on stage and between the sheets.
From the moment Betsy Kruse Craig flounced on the stage wearing a fur coat in the middle of the summer and silky, bright purple dress with a sparkly brooch, she embodied Bankhead. The zingers flew. Her voice resonated as she delivered laughter-evoking one-liners and Bankhead’s witticism.
Craig also drew out Bankhead vulnerabilities, especially with the star’s tortured relationship with the role of Blanche DuBois, the protagonist in Tennessee Williams’ 1947 Pulitzer Prize-winning play “A Streetcar Named Desire.”
Craig’s Bankhead taunts and teases Danny (Damian Garcia), the goody-goody, buttoned-up film editor, who has been tasked with the challenge of getting the recording of the line.
Garcia offers a rather flummoxed Danny who is annoyed with the situation and at Bankhead’s unprofessional and unpredictable behavior. As “Looped” progresses and Danny’s secrets surface, Garcia unbuttons Danny’s emotions and reveals a character who is not so goody-goody but “deliciously disgraceful,” as Bankhead would say.
James Blair’s Steve, the everyman behind the glass in the control room, adds a sense of balance and normalcy to the play. Unfettered by celebrity or cocaine, he just wants to get his job done.
Director Susan Claassen, Invisible Theatre’s managing artistic director, keeps the banter focused and the pace whip-fast with precise comedic timing.
Invisible Theater is a cozy 80-seat theater. Keeping the seating about half-capacity as a COVID precaution, the small, albeit enthusiastic, audience adds to the intimacy of “Looped" and enables the audience to fully see the person beneath the glitz and glamour.
