Cause Celebre

There's Broadway and off. And then there is the rare pleasure of way off, when mega talents bring their prodigious gifts to bear on giving to others. Last Tuesday night at the Players Club, the cause was prison reform and the celebres were in abundance: Marian Seldes read from Lillian Hellman's memoir, “Scoundrel Time,” about the 1950's when the playwright-as were so many screenwriters and theater people-- was interrogated before McCarthy's tribunal; Christine Ebersole  read “A Lady of Letters” by Alan Bennett. Scenes from Miguel Pinero's “Short Eyes” and John Herbert's “Fortune in Men's Eyes” focused on the experience of men in prison. And then there were those imprisoned. Cause Celebre is the brainchild of playwright Susan Charlotte, and a sister act to her Food for Thought Productions. When Charlotte decided to shine a light on prison reform she called   Mercedes Ruehl who coincidentally was corresponding with a two-time murderer, jailed for her remaining natural life. Rather than read from a script, Ruehl asked Guenevere Garcia to write down the story of her life. Where do I start, she asked. Start with “I was born . . . ,” recounted Ruehl. The graphic details of child abuse left no eye tearless, even the seasoned Oscar winning actress had to pause. Reflections of a man and woman who were in prison, conceived, directed and written in collaboration with performers by The Fortune Society's David Rothenberg, concluded the evening. Called “The Castle” for the upper  West Side home that has been created for former inmates as an intermediary residence, the play is to open at New World Stages later this spring. Two former drug addicts, Vilma Ortiz Donovan and Casimiro Torres tell intertwining stories of childhood, crime and punishment. This moving performance was a glimpse into how theater is created. Smiling and proud after recounting harrowing experiences, Donovan and Torres each concluded, “And, I am a taxpayer."

Regina Weinreich            

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