What I liked
The pacing is fast, which left me not so much to contemplate as to simply feel. Most often I experienced emotion before fully appreciating why. I was affected. The mix and timing of comedy, at times slapstick and others subtle, with moving dramatic portrayals is near perfect and mirrored by disembodied voices. The nuances in writing and Asta Leigh’s acting are many, and we may only realize just how real Lola is when we indeed see the character act, brilliantly on point as directed before switching off on cue to return to real life and her real self (or, is it?). And we realize the complexity of the character in her seeming shallowness, only when we see how deeply she feels and comprehends her situation. We’re never let off the hook—is any of it real, is it all real, is it a series of lucid and otherwise interludes. The simplicity of costuming, props and pantomime works perfectly, complimenting the entire production.
What I didn't like
This is truly a life from birth to present which interweaves important geopolitical, social and personal issues. The necessity to communicate the full scope of those events is important background, but in the brief time to do so may detract from the very human aspects of the character and her biography. I say, in this format, more Lola! Perhaps less world history. The early satiric history of Lola’s homeland and its parallels to that of the United States made me smile, and laugh, but its relationship to who Lola has become is incompletely developed. That is in sharp contrast to later events portrayed and their very real relationship to the Lola we experience clear—not as a history observed but life requiring her to cope.
My overall impression
Bombastic, frenetic, out of control, grandly grandiose, delusional, wildly optimistic, horribly lost, suddenly dark, self-important, positively self-absorbed, craving affection or is it attention(?), tone deaf and hypersensitive, brilliant, talented, and a self-perception bias tending to loser. Is it brave front, facade, bad or good acting, who she really is or aspires to be, or diagnostically clinical pathology? Lola may or may not know the answer, and her gift to her audience is not for us to guess or to listen intently to find out, but to immerse, accept the challenge of exhausting intensity, and experience the answers. Is the actor’s performance grounded? Lola apparently isn’t, and then we see perhaps the key to Lola is that she is extraordinarily grounded in her character and in her values. In an hour this performance draws us into a life and its trajectory, counting down 40-years. Asta Leigh delivers the roller coaster ride brilliantly, projecting the wild swings and left me with tears—tears of laughter, tears of empathetic sorrow and grief for so many things, and tears of joy. The writing is tight, the direction wonderful, the effect…left to each of us to check our own feelings to share, join in and witness as a part of the life that is Lola’s. When we hear the final words of this solo performance, we realize we’ve been rendered: Participants, and responsible. I attended the opening, and look forward to return and experience Lola in my next rendering.
