LET ME DOWN EASY
The Broad Stage
Reviewed by Carol Kaufman Segal

Anna Deavere Smith is unique as an actress and writer. Her recent performance of Let Me Down Easy at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica reveals her talent in both fields. After interviewing hundreds of people (320 to be exact) on three continents, she brings to life twenty of them in this spellbinding production directed by Leonard Foglia. Ms Smith is not an imitator, but she performs her different characters by totally taking on their personas, their body language, inflections, change of voice, anything about a person that makes up their character.

 
In this particular production, Let Me Down Easy, she brings the issues of health care to the forefront through situations faced by her interviewees. We are told, beforehand, by a projected message on the stage, that the words spoken by Ms Smith are verbatim from her interviews. They are so much so that every nuance, every pause, everything that occurred during that interview is woven into her act. Her change of characters move so smoothly from one to another, it is like pure magic, mesmerizing her audience, particularly since each one is so diverse.
 
Her characters are female and male, old and young, of various professions, and of different ethnicity. As she segues into each character, that person is identified on a projected message above the stage. Anna Deavere Smith is well known to many for her roles on The West Wing and Nurse Jackie. But she is best known for her plays such as Fires In the Mirror and Twilight: Los Angeles, which are similar style productions to Let Me Down Easy, in which she performs multiple and diverse characters and which were also written using materials from interviews. She won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding One-Person Show two years in a row for both of these productions.
 
The Broad Stage is located at 1310 11th Street in Santa Monica. It is under the leadership of Director Dale Franzen and Artistic Chair Dustin Hoffman. For more information, visit them online at www.TheBroadStage.com

Comments? Write to us at: Letters@ReviewPlays.Com