Everyone is quirky in one way or another. Even those people who see themselves as quintessentially “normal” have their share of quirks. What these people don’t understand is that people who they view as quirky aren’t that different from themselves.
Martha, Josie, and the Chinese Elvis is a story of quirky people who deal with normal lives. The plot is by no means strange: a mother has just turned 40 and is questioning her life. The mother’s good friend and client decides to throw her a party to cheer her up, inviting the mother’s daughter, her housecleaner and a mysterious guest. The mother is left to deal with the unwanted party and its proceedings.
The play recently made its American premiere at D.C.’s own Woolly Mammoth Theatre, after being a hit in London for the past seven years. The play owes much of its success to English playwright Charlotte Jones, who brings life to this seemingly normal situation.
In the play, Josie (Beth Hylton) is an aging mother and dominatrix who is considering giving up her practice as she turns 40. Her daughter, Brenda-Marie (Kimberly Gilbert), is an intellectually disabled adult woman with dreams of being an ice-dancing champion with her deceased sister Shelly-Louise. Housecleaner Martha (Georgetown Professor Sarah Marshall) is an obsessive compulsive Catholic preoccupied with the number five. Lionel (David Bryan Jackson), Josie’s good friend who enjoys cross-dressing and S&M, is the one who decides to cheer Josie up by throwing her a birthday party. He boasts of a “secret guest,” who turns out to be an Elvis impersonator (Tony Nam). But this isn’t your run-of-the-mill Elvis impersonator—he’s Chinese. Together, the five awkwardly participate in what is to be an ill-fated party.
The play itself does not focus on these quirks and eccentricities but accepts them and expects the audience to accept them too. When we are told that Josie is quitting her job because she feels too old, the characters and audience are not preoccupied with her atypical profession. Instead, the characters act as if nothing odd is happening: they attempt to comfort and help her as she questions whether she is adequate enough in her old age.
Woolly Mammoth executes this play (which can very easily be turned into a freak show if produced incorrectly) the way Jones had in mind. Director John Vreeke knew that this play was not meant to harshly exploit these characters, but rather to display their everyday problems in an endearing light.
The set, crafted by Dan Conway, is integral to Elvis. Much of the action takes place in an English home adorned with decorations for a Christmas since past. Included are a visible backyard, the house’s frames and Christmas lights. The set highlights the fact that these people, though they have peculiar lifestyles, live like every other person who celebrates Christmas. Brenda Marie begs the winter skies for snow and Josie attempts to take down all of her holiday décor. We see in the set and its holiday atmosphere the precise normalcy these characters exemplify—a normalcy that is not far from you or me.
The cast of Elvis is truly magnificent. Each actor skillfully maintains a strong British accent while performing his character’s oddities—whether it be prancing around in drag or maneuvering through a room by sequences of five. The play relies on the ensemble’s grace and chemistry, and it works well at Woolly Mammoth because the actors are so in tune with each other.
One actor in particular steals the show. Kimberly Gilbert, who plays Josie’s intellectually disabled daughter Brenda-Marie, is so convincing in her character that the audience does not doubt for a second that she is a disabled woman striving to live what she believes is a normal life. Gilbert executes her character with precision, as exhibited in her habitually curved wrists and an occasional slur in speech. When Brenda Marie confidently ‘ice-dances’ across the stage, with hopes that she will one day receive all sixes of approval at the Olympics, Gilbert’s moving performance shines.
Martha, Josie, and the Chinese Elvis is a great production, not just because of its endearing portrayal of people with problems but because Woolly Mammoth Theatre has made this play into something respectful on many levels.
Martha, Josie, and the Chinese Elvis is being performed at Woolly Mammoth Theatre and is running through Dec. 10, with performances on Wednesdays through Sundays.
