“Twelve Installations”—World Premiere at Parish Players
La Parisienne is more than a famous painting. It’s the star of the show.
Have you ever loved a painting so much that you wrote a play about it? Gray Horan has.
Horan first encountered the painting La Parisienne by abstract artist Robert Delaunay many years ago. Then La Parisienne, also known as Woman With an Umbrella, was sold at auction. As she learned La Parisienne’s fate, to be stored in a vault as a financial asset instead of being displayed, Horan says she “sat down to write a eulogy for the painting,” and ended up with a work to bring to the stage.
Horan and the painting were well-acquainted. La Parisienne was a much-beloved work that was the centerpiece of an art collection in the New York City home of Greta Garbo. And yes, Horan knew her. Garbo was Horan’s great-aunt.
In an email to me, Horan described her last moments with the painting and her inspiration to piece together its backstory and “give it a voice.”
“I stood in a once grand but now emptied room. The only thing remaining was a beautiful abstract painting: a portrait of a woman, La Parisienne. I loved that painting, but it was time to say goodbye. I watched it depart into the white-gloved hands of several highly trained shipping specialists. Then, I decided to bring it back to life as the central character in my new play, Twelve Installations.”
The painting appears to have had a robust life. Created in 1913, La Parisienne traveled across the world throughout the twentieth century, from Paris to Berlin to Portugal, to Pittsburgh and New York. Horan’s work centers on showing the cast of “colorful characters” who encountered the painting and their relationships with the work.
“La Parisienne is a novel central character. She is a painting. She is also a creative triumph, a provocative beauty and a cunning survivor.”
The Parish Players will present Twelve Installations in its world premiere—though it had been workshopped earlier at Northern Stage—on two successive weekends in February at the Grange Theater in Thetford, VT. A pair of tickets would make a lovely Valentine’s Day gift. Directed by Terry Samwick. Details below.
Friday and Saturday, February 14th, 15th & 21st, 22nd at 7:00 p.m. Matinees on Sundays, February 16th & 23rd at 3:00 p.m.
Tickets: Reserve by phone at (802) 785-4344, email at reservations@parishplayers.org,or online at www.parishplayers.org
(For a short bio of painter Robert Delaunay, once described as “bringing color to Cubism,” click here. Photos, above, by permission and courtesy of Philip Noble, Parish Players. Photo, below, La Parisienne by Robert Delaunay, public domain.))
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And in case you are wondering . . . Susan B. Apel shuttered a lifelong career as a law professor to continue an interest (since kindergarten) in writing. Her freelance business, The Next Word, includes literary and feature writing; her work has appeared in a variety of lit mags and other publications including Art New England, The Woven Tale Press, The Arts Fuse, and Persimmon Tree. She connects with her neighbors through Artful, her blog about arts and culture in the Upper Valley. She’s in love with the written word.