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Photo by Don Kellogg

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

She is King

A creation by its star, Larissa Husiak (Billie Jean King), She is King is a verbatim reenactment of the words of Billie Jean King through various interviews for TV.  It's an intensive retrospective hour of the tennis star of the 70's who made history by admitting to a lesbian affair in 1981.

The staging is unique as cameras focus on the subject of the interviews and is broadcast to 9 televisions lined up across the back of the stage, representing the broadcast media aspect of the show.  Several children are involved in the production also.   I believe after reading the show fact sheet that the Incubator Arts Project is partly responsible for the rather distracting kids holding and moving scenery during the show - as their approach is to produce multi-generational works.  (Maybe?).  In the contact of the show, they were supposed to represent ball boys and girls the same age that Billie Jean King was when she decided she was going to be a tennis star and change the sport.  And as we know, indeed she did.

As far as the show goes, it was heartwarming, touching and the script does a fantastic job of highlighting  the attitudes of those times - both the interviewer questions and some of the answers too!   Ms Husiak indeed looked, sounded and felt like Ms King live on stage.  Those trademark 80's glasses clinched the deal.

As for the singing at the end, maybe we didn't need that.   A viable and engaging show.  Well,  maybe if a few changes are made.