The year is 1938. The place: Paris. It is the eve of World War II, and a young Swede, Eric Hanes, finds himself unexpectedly invited to a dinner party hosted by American heiress Barbara Hutton. In attendance will be the famous singer and movie star Marlene Dietrich, the concert violinist Fritz Kreisler, the author Erich Maria Remarque, and a few other guests.
Everyone is holding their breath, watching “the Fuhrer” in Germany, caught between nostalgia for the way things are, hope for the way things will be, and a cold fear that war will overtake Europe once again.
Later in his life, Eric Hanes will tell the story of that evening to his daughter, Anne-Charlotte Harvey, who is now a playwright and theatre professor at San Diego State. She, in turn, collaborated with Lamb’s Players Theatre to create the world premiere of her play and this unique story, Dinner with Marlene.
“You may well ask the very same questions I did as a playwright and dramaturg,” says Anne-Charlotte. “‘What were these people doing in Paris at this point?’ ‘Why were they invited to this particular dinner?’ ‘How did they know each other before this evening?’ The more you explore, the more you find out.”
Indeed, the dinner guests all have their own stories and secrets, which slowly reveal themselves throughout the dinner, particularly as the Veuve Clicquot begins to flow freely. Countess Hutton, the hostess for the evening, proposes, “A toast to Paris — safe, happy, free Paris!”
But as the dinner guests talk and tease, their anxieties become clear as war impends. The nationalities — Belgian and sympathetic to Germany, German but not sympathetic to Germany, Swedish, French, American, Austrian with a Jewish father and American wife — express aching sadness for the loss of their past and fear for the harshness of the German future. Erich Maria Remarque, author of All Quiet on the Western Front and Marlene’s current love interest, expresses the jaded outlook of a soldier who has fought in German trenches and then been stripped of his German citizenship.
Marlene Dietrich, played by the inestimably talented Deborah Gilmour Smyth, dominates the dinner with her feline ennui and her sharply pressed tuxedo suit. Everyone orbits around her, the magical spotlight that has brought them all together. Yet she is not invincible, thanks to the presence of her pert 13-year-old daughter, Maria (Avery Trimm). Playwright Anne-Charlotte uses Maria’s know-it-all attitude as the voice of reason in the room, and her presence gives Marlene a humbled and human side as she chides or caresses her daughter.
The other actors rise beautifully to their roles, each embodying their character. John Rosen, one of my favorite actors at Lamb’s, gently portrays the tender heart of his character, concert violinist and Austrian exile Fritz Kreister. Rachael VanWormer (playing Barbara Hutton) and Cynthia Gerber (playing Bernadine Boubiel) portray the bubbly ridiculousness of their two characters with energy and enthusiasm as well.
Mike Buckley deserves a hat-tip as well for his excellent set design which, as Director Robert Smyth notes, is his 200th set design for Lamb’s. The opulent curtains, gleaming black marble floor, and elaborate crystal- and gold-bedecked table all recall a time in Europe that has come and gone, but is not forgotten.
“This exploration,” says playwright Anne-Charlotte, “is a voyage of discovery into the lives of a group of people who once were vibrantly alive, but also into a past, which — in the words of one of the characters — truly is ‘a distant country.’ Distant — yet disturbingly familiar.”
Indeed it is, and Lamb’s takes us to this familiar but distant place with its usual elegance. Yet another exquisite story told incredibly well by our local theatre — don’t miss this one!
For tickets and showtimes, visit the Lamb’s Players website or call the Box Office at (619) 437-6000.
