Sunday, January 19, 2020

Theatrical Review: A Staged Reading of Stephen Temperley's SOUVENIR

"We must all try to do some good in the world."
"But at what price?"
The second staged reading of CAST's third season was SOUVENIR: A FANTASIA ON THE LIFE OF FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS by Stephen Temperley. It's a play about the real-life soprano Florence Foster Jenkins (hereafter referred to as FFJ), who was (in)famous in New York during the 1920's until the 1940's. She was known for her peculiar relationship with pitch. (If you haven't heard her sing, listen to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6ubiUIxbWE )
I first heard of FFJ when I was a college student. People would pass around an mp3 player with a recording of her (this was waaaaay back in the Stone Age, you see), and they would laugh. She was introduced to me as someone to mock. A joke. Someone who only got to sing because she was rich and could afford to rent auditoriums and give away tickets. And the only thing that made me see FFJ in a different light was the 2016 film starring Meryl Streep, whereupon I realized that she had been a brilliant pianist -- even considered a child prodigy-- and that it was syphilis (and taking mercury and arsenic for medication) that affected the parts of the brain necessary to sing in tune.
Fast forward to tonight's play, directed by Wanggo Gallaga, who gave a very touching paean to his father's forbidding censorship of any kind at home (including singing -- in or out of tune!).
The play was vastly different from the movie, as SOUVENIR focused more on the relationship between FFJ (brilliantly portrayed by Cathy Azanza-Dy) and her accompanist, Cosme McMoon (featuring Rony Fortich in his theatrical debut!). Both are worth seeing! They are entirely different works. And CAST's Sarah Facuri also mentioned that there was another play on FFJ, entitled GLORIOUS!, but it's more comedic in nature, and how I look forward to seeing that in the future!
SOUVENIR takes its title from the recording that FFJ made, so she could have a memento of her voice to look back to, in future years when her voice was no longer the same.
And it struck all of us, singers and non-singers alike, because we all want to be remembered. We all long for immortality of one kind or another. The question is... what will we be remembered for? Excellence? Honesty? Kindness?
I used to think that truth mattered more than kindness, but this play has me questioning this deeply entrenched belief. As a music teacher, I was particularly convicted by the ethical conundrum faced by Cosme McMoon, the pianist. You see, by training, my classmates and I were taught never to say "Very good!" to students who failed to pitch match accurately. We were taught to say "Thank you for trying," because it was our job to teach pitch accuracy.
Stephen Temperley's FFJ couldn't care about pitch! "Notes are signposts left to guide us!" Cathy Azanza-Dy gleefully recites before launching into Bach/Gounod's Ave Maria (Not Schubert's, "let's leave it for the mezzos!"). Her portrayal of FFJ was so effective, her childish innocence and attention-seeking antics made the audience love her! And in a particularly tense moment towards the end of the play, when the recording of jeering laughter threatened to drown out her confident soprano, the audience was left silent... guilty and horror-struck at the realization that we had been the ones laughing nonstop in the first act. That we have it in us to be the mocking mob. That realization of the monstrosity in us is not a feeling I will forget.
Truth... just like pitch... can be relative or absolute. And this play brings up the ancient debate embodied in Plato's Noble Lie. The fact that audience members were debating for hours afterwards is a very, very good thing!
One thing I know to be true. FFJ may not have been the best singer, but she brought joy to people. And that's something not every diva... not every person... can boast of. But it is something to dream of achieving.
"If only we could live in the music forever. If only it could go on and on." This is exactly how this audience member felt while watching this second play! Can't wait for the third CAST offering next Sunday!
And now I have another song replacing the old track in my brain as "Current LSS"... Farewell "Toss a coin to your witcher!" Now it's "Crazy Rhythm!" There are several renditions but I particularly like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCy-4wfDFi4 , although Doris Day's is nice, too!
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