Worthy of Her Name

What does it feel like to be named after a beautiful actress if you are overweight and lack self-confidence? The topic of “Finding Elizabeth Taylor,” a one-act play written and performed by Elizabeth Claire Taylor, surely sounds enticing. The performance, directed by Morgan Gould and put on stage of The Gene Frankel Theatre within Planet Connections Theatre Festivity, was humorous, and the actress was brilliant; however, the fragments of the heroine’s life followed the theme, but were not linked together into a storyline. Therefore, they looked like bootstrapped pieces of a bigger picture.

In other words, the piece definitely has great potential, but it needs to be worked on to make it less confusing for the audience.

First of all, the play seemed to take on too much content, for such a short performance. For example, there were several moments when the recording of the voice of Elizabeth’s father sounded as though it was coming out of nowhere, giving us short information about why she had been named this way and what hopes her father had for her. The use of the omnipotent voice seemed to be unrelated to the major action, even though it did bring a lot to the plot. Instead, if Elizabeth narrated the story of her name herself, it would flow better.

Secondly, as the actress was portraying her heroine at different ages, it was not always clear to which period of Elizabeth’s life the play refers. It often took half of the scene for the viewers to understand that it’s “six grade,” or “the first year at NYU.”

Basically, the only elements that served well in relation to connecting the scenes were the moving screens. They allowed the actress to change her appearance, and let a tempting box of donuts appear from underneath.

By the way, the donuts brought in humor into the tense situation. There was a conflict between who Elizabeth was and who she wanted to be, and instead of crying and worrying, she laughed at the jeans that didn’t fit, at the irresistible donuts and the diet that was so hard to adhere to. And so did the audience. The humor was truly the gem of the performance.

And still, without Taylor’s brilliant acting skills the play would not work at all. The way she tilted her head at the right moments was perfect and every one of her movements expressed the emotion it was to reveal to the audience. The acting and the humor were the two things the audience carried away with them from the theatre.

All in all, the play was short, well-played and concentrated on one person. It was funny, too, which every audience usually likes. And still, the performance cannot be a true success if it is broken into separate scenes catering to the same theme.