In Edward Albee’s first-rate ‘Occupant’ at Theater J, a gutsy woman sculptor creates herself

How did Louise Nevelson become who she became? That's the hook.

“True if interesting” is Louise Nevelson’s byword in Occupant, Edward Albee’s witty and wise bioplay about the famous sculptor. She was quite the character. For Nevelson, in the hagiography according to Albee, truth was relative to the attention it could attract. Facts for Nevelson were not carved in stone but malleable and assemblable as if wood. Or so Albee would have us believe.

In the first-rate production directed by Aaron Posner now at Theater J, we watch fascinated as one great artist pays tribute to another, warts and all. How did Nevelson become who she became? That’s the hook. But also, underneath: How is Albee’s retelling of her life and work refracted by his own?

Is this man’s admiring portrait of this woman authenticatable? Maybe, maybe not. Who’s to say? And how Albee-ish is that?

Nevelson was in life a tall woman such as would have interested him (Cf. his play about three of them). She had a son to whom she was a rotten mother (Albee could relate). She had a youthful infatuation with a beautiful blue-eyed boy (ditto). And Nevelson and Albee were in fact friends.

Nevelson, despite misogynist carping from critics, achieved stature in the art world rarely accorded artists of her sex. She did not do this in sisterly solidarity (she was no proto Guerilla Girl), but by gosh she did it. And Albee, who was not known for feminist leanings, has set about telling that story. As only he can.

Jonathan David Martin as The Man and Susan Rome as Louise Nevelson in Edward Albee’s ‘Occupant.’ Photo by C. Stanley Photography.

The dramatic conceit in Occupant is that the octogenarian Nevelson, who has been dead for 31 years, is being interviewed on this stage in the present moment by a pleasant unnamed man. For two acts he questions her, talking her through her life story, amused by her dry humor, bemused by her quirks, impressed with her grit, trying to tease out the truth.

In less capable hands the part of this nosey nudnik could quickly get on one’s nerves—not only Louise Nevelson’s (as it is scripted to) but also ours (which would not be good). Happily, Jonathan David Martin brings to the role of The Man such wry charm, boyish zest, and tweedy warmth we are won over immediately and for keeps. His wonderful portrayal is reminiscent of the TV talk show host Dick Cavett in his younger years. Indeed if this incessantly inquisitive character as played by Martin had his own celebrity-interview vlog, one can easily imagine how watchable it would be and how viral it could go.

Susan Rome as Louise Nevelson commands the stage with a spontaneity, grandiosity, and luminosity that would make Auntie Mame and Mama Rose consider retirement. Wearing Nevelson’s trademark sable eyelashes, big beads, and fabulously multipattern smock and slacks, Rome parades the stage, cracks asides, winks and smirks, claps her hands, rolls her eyes, sticks it to The Man, in all embodying to the hilt the artist’s defiant self-chosen self. “Be yourself; be only yourself,” she says. Her mantra.

Susan Rome as Louise Nevelson in Edward Albee’s ‘Occupant.’ Photo by C. Stanley Photography.

When Nevelson speaks of not fitting in so she made everything fit her, when she protests the possession that comes with marriage, when she jokes that “if you say things enough people believe it,” when she mockingly mimics being bounced up and down by her husband during sex, when at last she stands triumphant in the midst of her towering artwork—Rome entirely owns the character, inspires esteem, and models a message of fierce female determination to live and create on her own terms.

That empowering message flows like a raging rapids through the play, and Albee has given Nevelson eloquent words to express it, such as this speech near the end:

If you finally come into yourself like I did, if you finally know the space you occupy, well, then, you go on. You don’t relax; you don’t bask in it…You work harder than ever. You turn the world into one huge Nevelson. It was fucking wonderful. And what was wonderful was what I’d always known would happen—deep inside of me—if I could only ever find it, if I could only hang on.

Jonathan David Martin as The Man and Susan Rome as Louise Nevelson in Edward Albee’s ‘Occupant.’ Photo by C. Stanley Photography.

Together Rose and Martin are a terrific team—delightfully testy at first, then taking us steadily into painful territory almost too personal to hear, finally exuding the kind of camaraderie one finds between two fine stand-up comics.

On the back wall, looming over this truth-seeking session, Projection Designer Devin Kinch displays some thirty feet high the classic black-and-white photograph of Nevelson in her later years. As we hear her life story unfold, including its difficult and dark periods, we are thus ever reminded that this is the oversized self that she actualized herself to become.

Scenic Designer Nephelie Andonyadis (who also did the two costumes) provides a calm conversational setting for the first part then delivers at the end an amazing array of knock-off-Nevelson sculptures, which Lighting Designer Jesse Belsky makes seem as monumental as the artist.

Did this man tell this woman’s story faithfully? Maybe. Maybe not. Nevelson’s gone, so she can’t say. Albee too. It’s a perfect Albee-ish perplex. But pay attention to the attention Albee pays her. You will get caught up how he does it. You will be drawn in more and more as her life goes on. And you will leave, after her death, in absolute awe of what she did.

Running Time: Two hours and 10 minutes, including one intermission.

Edward Albee’s Occupant plays through December 8, 2019, at Theater J in the newly renovated Aaron and Cecile Goldman Theater, located inside the Edlavitch DC Jewish Community Center, 1529 16th St., NW, Washington DC.  For tickets, call 202-777-3210 or go online.

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John Stoltenberg
John Stoltenberg is executive editor of DC Theater Arts. He writes both reviews and his Magic Time! column, which he named after that magical moment between life and art just before a show begins. In it, he explores how art makes sense of life—and vice versa—as he reflects on meanings that matter in the theater he sees. Decades ago, in college, John began writing, producing, directing, and acting in plays. He continued through grad school—earning an M.F.A. in theater arts from Columbia University School of the Arts—then lucked into a job as writer-in-residence and administrative director with the influential experimental theater company The Open Theatre, whose legendary artistic director was Joseph Chaikin. Meanwhile, his own plays were produced off-off-Broadway, and he won a New York State Arts Council grant to write plays. Then John’s life changed course: He turned to writing nonfiction essays, articles, and books and had a distinguished career as a magazine editor. But he kept going to the theater, the art form that for him has always been the most transcendent and transporting and best illuminates the acts and ethics that connect us. He tweets at @JohnStoltenberg. Member, American Theatre Critics Association.

2 COMMENTS

    • Thanks for that intriguing excerpt from Nevelson’s full quote…

      “Practice forgiveness for yourself. If you practice forgiveness because others think it is the right thing to do–you are not doing it to help yourself. When you recognize anger and resentment, meditate, pray and forgive. Forgive from the heart. I am the same person I have always been- a little wiser, a little kinder and a lot sober. I am the man I always wanted to be.”

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