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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 28, 1984)
ENTERTAINMENT wmm m a m - mMs-i $wmœM *■ ■ ■ ■ *?*. ' ';'■ ■ ■ ■■ ■ : ; ■ ■ ■ ■ ; k '< v The artist's d ile m m a by Jay Brown When Nyla McCarthy walked into Just O ut’s office, I had Brand X Daily spread out on my desk. “ Did you read what [ Brand X Daily’s re viewer] wrote?" she exclaimed. I hand’t read it yet, but I did as Nyla sat on a stool in front of me. He wasn’t kind. And, even though he and I saw Plenty on the same night, I really wondered if we had seen the same play. I have to thank him though; he provided the perfect opening to our interview. “ I’ve wanted to do Plenty for three years. I was working a lot with the Production Com pany then and Peter Fomara was going to direct me in it But we couldn’t get the rights," Nyla began. When she heard that ART was going to produce Plenty this year, Nyla knew that she had another chance to play Susan. She knew she was the only one to do the part “ I had to audition for it I knew that I under stood Susan; that I had an understanding of what she was all about better than anyone. Why she was the way she was. And I did research on diplomatic wives and under stood her fear of being perfect." Nyla McCarthy has been acting profesion- ally since the mid-seventies. She began her career with the Oregon Repertory Theatre in Eugene and toured with that company for a year during the U.S. bicentennial celebration, for which the company had been awarded a grant by the U.S. Bicentennial Commission. More touring lay in store for her after she landed a job with the Antique Festival Theatre. "The oldest professional touring theatre in the United States," Nyla said. “ It’s a sort of collective, based in Idaho. We were together all the time for 18 months. It was a good experience. And I made lots of money to be an actress." When the Antique Festival Theatre job en ded, Nyla took a vacation in Europe. Upon her return in 1978, she settled in Portland and for the next three years was associated with the Production Company. “ Some people think that theatre isn’t really a noble thing to be doing, but it gives people a vicarious reality. There are many important photo by Rick Adams things that I want people to hear. I believe in light; I believe that bureaucracy, greed and power are the forces of dark." When the Production Company disband ed, Nyla took off for a year in San Francisco but came back to Portland "because it was too expensive.” Then she decided to have a child. "I want to be a mother for awhile. I wanted to create a positive being out of my own body. Now I have a child to support and I want to do it with theatre. I just want to pay the rent and eat — is that too much to ask? So I work full time at another job; I’m a housing coordinator with Mental Health." During the past year Nyla appeared in two plays directed by Melida Pittman, Bits and Pieces and Pittman’s own Atlantis. "Atlantis was a wonderful idea. But people were cruel about it; they gave no credit for trying. Melinda was really devastated and will take a long time to come back.” Then she “got hooked again" on Plenty. There is a kinesthetic energy flow that hap pens in theatre — a chain that happens with the audience. When theatre magic works it's like an orgasm. And there is a lot of good theatre in Portland." Nyla said that although some people think she's “real serious, I want to do comedy. I don’t feel I am a type’ — even though I do play mad women or wounded women well. I Plenty. even played a man in a couple of shows. I can look really androgynous if I choose to.” "I love people — all people. Particularly I believe that women are really stronger than history has let us be. I am a humanist I live alone. I’m a single parent An ’80s super woman." Look for Nyla McCarthy, super actress as well as superwoman, in a motion picture cur rently in the works in Portland. The film, di rected by Gus Van Sant, is based on Walt Curtis’ Mala Hoche. In the meantime, Plenty continues at the YWCA through October 13. And early next year Nyla will be appearing in another ART production, Hill House, an adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s supernatural thriller The Haunting of Hill House. In review Susan Traherne, at 17, was a member of the French Resistance during World War II. For the next eighteen years she attempts to preserve the innocence intrinsic to her war experience as the world around her slides into hypocrisy and duplicity. In a world of plenty, Susan Traherne’s survival requires nothing but the innocence of pure feeling. "I didn’t think,” she says, “ I only felt" As Susan learns that innocence is a de spised quantity in the world she inhabits, she becomes more and more alienated until she appears to lose all contact with that world. She is, of course, perceived as “ mad” by the defenders of the prevailing order. She finds that preserving innocence is an extremely difficulttask; surviving the Nazis in World War II was one thing, but survival in the postwar world is another game altogether. Plenty is a very simple story — 18 years in a woman’s life. And yet, Plenty, like the bulk of British popular fiction is also social commen tary. I hesitate to say Plenty is an allegory, but Susan Traherne does seem to personify Bri tain at her “ finest hour" and in the postwar era as Britain dismantled her empire. As Susan Traherne, Nyla McCarthy displays an awesome ability to shift mood, sensuous, innocent, mad. Her luminous eyes express volumes as they shift and dart. McCarthy is wonderful to watch. Marilyn Stacey plays Alice Susan’s some times lover, longtime friend. Alice is less complex than Susan; to Alice, pure feeling equals lust But lust comes to her after a while. Stacey plays Alice as the perfect foil to Susan’s mood changes; she’s there steady as a rock. Plenty, directed by Rebecca Adams, is a cornucopia of fine acting talent. Arthur , Harold is wonderful as Sir Leonard Darwin, a diplom at’s diplomat; Joseph R. Cronin as Brock, Susan’s husband and consular offi cial, perfectly embodies the cynical Englishman. In smaller roles, but no less outstanding, are David Beetham-Gomes, Tim Streeter, Michele M. Fulves, Jeffry Brownson, Lee Forest and Jordana Sardo. And, as Mme. Wong, Linda Schneider is a perfect jewel. See Plenty and you will see plenty; it’s a theatre experience not to be missed. “ If you can keep your head When all about you Are losing theirs And blaming it on you . . . " These lines from Rudyard Kipling’s “ If,” may explain the quandary faced by the pro tagonist of David Hare's Plenty. fashions & basics in fine fabrics NATURAL FIBRE CLOTHING for w om en men & children n e w m a r k e t w e s t b u ild in g 34 S.W. 2nd Ave. 228-1693 M on-S at 10-6 Sun 12-6 Fresh Pasta Italian Delicacies and Wines Peter de Carmo Don Oman 37.11 S.E. Hawthorne Portland. Oregon 97214 ( 503 ) 232-1010 Just Out. September 28-October 26