Drowning in Veronica Lake

Written by: Phil Ormsby
Directed by: Simon Coleman
Circa Two
01 November − 12 November

Now in glorious living colour

Veronica Lake – Created, designed, manufactured by Hollywood.

Presented by Flaxworks.

From under-age Miss Florida to Hollywood icon. From glamorous to anonymous, adored to discarded. Veronica Lake - Dead but not lying down.

Revisit the Golden Age of Hollywood via the sordid underbelly of the film industry in Flaxworks latest production, Drowning in Veronica Lake - a darkly comic tribute to the eponymous 1940s screen siren.

Trapped somewhere between Paramount and Purgatory the fictional personality of Veronica Lake graces us with a highly theatrical account of her meteoric rise to fame and glamour and equally spectacular decline. Alex Ellis plays the faded star, who has been dead for 40 years but is still optimistic for a comeback.

'This is a bravura performance from Alex Ellis; playful, provocative and poignant'
- John Smythe, Theatreview – Wellington, Feb 2011

Veronica Lake was one of Hollywood’s most glamorous stars in the 1940s. At the peak of her brief career she campaigned tirelessly for the US war effort, took tea with Eleanor Roosevelt, piloted her own plane from coast to coast, was famously sued by her own mother and was bankrupted by the IRS before a rapid descent into obscurity, alcoholism and a premature and lonely death as an unknown 50 year old cocktail waitress.

'A Stunning Performance... A fascinating story excellently told and well worth seeing'
- Ewen Coleman, Dominion Post – Wellington, Feb 2011

Typecast early in her career as the ice cool blonde, the archetypal femme fatale, she was thrust into the limelight at an early age, as Hollywood’s newest sensation. Naïve and unprepared she left in her wake a polarised industry who either loved or loathed her.

In Drowning in Veronica Lake the untangling of the truth about her career, her alcoholism, her fractured family and her five husbands becomes a battle for centre stage - between the romantic view of the world presented by her old movies and the mocking and cynical personality of Veronica Lake.

“You could put all the talent I had into your left eye and still not suffer from impaired vision”
- Veronica Lake.

Writer, Phil Ormsby and director Simon Coleman re-interpret the multiple and conflicting versions of Veronica Lake’s life story in a production designed to emphasise the odd juxtaposition of a live performer playing a movie star, trapped in the trappings of celebrity, as she fights to reclaim her status as screen siren.

‘Highly recommended on all levels – for the acting, directing, dramatic costume and script. An absolute must see in my books.’
- Sharu Delilkan, Theatre Scenes – Auckland, March 2011

Calling herself ‘a product of Hollywood’, Veronica Lake knew her experience was typical of many actors used by studios to churn out product and then discarded but she resolutely refused to give up. She understands that in the end what we really want from our celebrities is entertainment, and in Drowning in Veronica Lake she obliges us with a touching, funny and grandly self-delusional tale that reverberates beyond her brief career and quite literally beyond the grave.

Event listed by Carah

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