Pauline Adamek – ArtsbeatLA
Four monologues written by diseuse Ruth Draper are brilliantly performed by Annette Bening as a 90-minute one act evening of entertainment. This new show at the Geffen begins nicely enough, with a couple of odd character pieces. The first is a slightly bizarre speech and movement class and lesson “in Greek poise” led by a woman who congenially barks instructions and gambols and rolls around the stage. She demands that her unseen students (presumably middle-aged, middle class women) “be an earthworm! stretch and limber yourselves!” as she teaches them how to express themselves through movement. Read more…
Myron Meisel – The Hollywood Reporter
Ruth Draper(1884-1956) became the most influential of solo dramatic performers in the first half of the last century. Her carefully crafted characterizations of high society types set the template for the plethora of single performer shows ever since. Draper presented new shows of her works on Broadway some 10 times in 35 years, and toured extensively in the U.K. as well as internationally, sometimes in conjunction with her equally talented nephew, the dancer Paul Draper. Read more…
Neal Weaver – Arts In LA
There aren’t very many truly unique figures in the whole history of the theater. There are the noble Greeks: Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. There are Shakespeare, Molière, Ibsen, Chekhov, and Bernard Shaw. And possibly we might include Strindberg and Tennessee Williams. But there was only one woman in the crew: Ruth Draper, celebrated as a distinguished writer, performer, and monologist. Read more…
Les Spindle – Frontiers L.A.
Ruth Draper (1884-1956) was a renowned actress-writer best known for her brilliantly witty monologues satirizing colorful female characters whose eccentricities were revealed in articulate and revelatory comedic vignettes. Read more...
Now running through May 18.