Lillian, William Luce's one-person memoir of Lillian Hellman feels less like a play and more like a personal and intimate one-on-one conversation with the late playwright. Making that kind of narrative work requires an extraordinary actress capable of filling some very large shoes, and in TimeLine Theatre Company's companion piece to their current production of The Children's Hour, Janet Ulrich Brooks nails her solo assignment. Brooks has that rare gift of making everything she says sound as if she is speaking just to you. Her command of the stage is authoritative, her eyes and focus piercing. She not only reveals her subject in surprising and vivid ways, she makes you feel an instant and long-lasting connection.
Hellman was well known for such mid 20th Century classics as The Little Foxes, Watch on the Rhine and The Children's Hour, among others. Her success, however, never brought her pleasure, and she admitted that she only liked the theatre when she was alone putting words on paper. Equally notorious were her left-leaning political convictions. She was always an admirer of radicals, although never a joiner of any political party. Nevertheless, she will be forever remembered for her brave stand against Senator Joseph McCarthy and his gang of thugs, otherwise known as the House Un-American Activities Committee. McCarthy and his cronies "played with the law like a batch of fudge," she tells us. A cleverly worded letter and a swift misdemeanor by one of the committee kept her from a prison sentence, although others were not as lucky.
The play also documents Lillian Hellman's 30-year relationship with Dashiell Hammett, the celebrated novelist who wrote The Thin Man and The Maltese Falcon. Hammett of course never appears onstage, but his presence is certainly felt. Lillian describes Hammett as her most beloved friend, having shared a "passionate affection" that somehow survived alcoholism, infidelity and the cancer that left the novelist in a coma and would eventually claim his life. Hammett had set aside a novel he was working on prior to the coma, believing there would be time for everything, which Hellman reminds us there isn't. As she tells us, "I've liked many people in my life and loved few."
Brooks shows the steadfast love and vulnerability of a woman often perceived as a zealot and a bitch. She also reveals her pithy wit. Assessing several of the great starlets of her day (Greta Garbo was "the most gorgeous woman ever," Norma Shearer's "face unclouded by thought" and Tallulah Bankhead was always "in the midst of a monologue she thought was conversation"). Brooks plays not only Lillian Hellman, but also the voices of assorted friends and family. As a companion to Hellman's play, The Children's Hour, Lillian is a must-see. As a little master class on how to hold a stage and an audience completely enthralled, you won't see better.
