Jean Smart (Photo: Marc J. Franklin and Emilio Madrid)

Call Me Izzy

By Lydia Sue Keidel

Call Me Izzy is about Izzy, a woman from rural Louisiana imprisoned in an abusive marriage. Only a couple weeks out of high school, she married Ferd who was 5 years her senior; her uncaring parents were happy to be rid of her. Ferd, who speaks with his fists, is a quick tempered man who drinks too much and keeps Isabelle in her place, which includes not allowing her to write. Her only outlet is her writing, specifically poetry, at which she is quite skilled despite having only a high school education. It is not only her outlet but her salvation. Izzy is forced to have a secret life, "I'll just keep my writin' to myself. Just like I keep my vocabulary, my opinions, my mind pictures."

Jean Smart saves Call Me Izzy. In fact, without Jean Smart, is there even a show here?  She compensates for the underdeveloped writing; draws the audience into intimacy in a theater too large to house it; verbally paints scenery on a uninspired minimalistic set; and creates enough characters in this one woman show to bring the story to life.

There's a lot of fuzziness in the script. Izzy tells a series of stories, not necessarily sequentially which is confusing, getting us up to speed. The playbill says that the play opens in 1989 (otherwise there's no reference to it). We learn Izzy was 17 when she got married. One tale is referenced from 10 years after the nuptials. The storyline seems to circle back around to when we first met Izzy; could be 20 years later, 30, 40, who knows? 

Now there is finally a conflict that demands an action. Izzy, encouraged by a neighbor, has secretly been going to a writing class. Without her knowledge, a couple of Izzy's poems that reveal Ferd's abuse are published, and she wins a writing award which includes money and a residency in Massachusetts. The wealthy couple granting the prize come to meet Izzy and Ferd at their trailer. There's a scene between the wife and Izzy which makes the point that abuse doesn't only happen to poor people. Ferd's temper ignites; he escalates to death threats but Izzy now has a way out. The ending is ambiguous, on purpose.

Jean Smart (Photo: Marc J. Franklin and Emilio Madrid)

Call Me Izzy is author Jamie Wax's theater writing debut, although it has been 30 years in the works. Wax, raised in Louisiana, was inspired by his aunt who was funny and a great story teller but had a hard life and often stayed with his family for refuge. He interviewed 26 women from domestic abuse shelters as research for writing this play and says that every one of them is represented in the piece.

Wax's collection of characters may help explain the uneven writing. Jean Smart's down home chatterbox Louisiana-accented delivery helps smooth that out. Her performance improves the writing. Smart entices the audience into her confidence. She's captivating and likable, humorous, and resilient. Director Sarna Lapine lets Smart use the audience as her scene partner, subtly changing voice and posture to embody the other characters, which she does with ease.

But even Smart's masterful performance is not able to atone for the insanely long scene changes. They are accompanied by well written, appropriately edgy music (T Bone Burnett and David Mansfield) which amplifies the mood of the play throughout. But the audience was confused and sometimes applauded to fill the emptiness in the dark theater as if the show were over, while Smart was getting a new plaid shirt (costume design by Tom Broecker) and added bruises (makeup design by Suki Tsujimoto). That interminable dead space brings any possible momentum (which the play lacks to begin with) to a screeching halt. It may also account for the difference between the 85-90 minutes the show advertises, and the 105 minute production I saw.

The lackluster set (scenic design by Mikiko Suzuki MacAdams) never quite evoked the trailer in which Izzy lived this nightmare. It looked cheap. The large stage was mostly filled with black panels which opened to reveal another area of the mobile home or a backdrop suggesting the wooded area behind the trailer park. The majority of the show featured a small downstage set of a tiny pathetic bathroom (Izzy's cell). That's how the show began: with a toilet front and center. Wasn't a good sign.

Even with its flaws, Call Me Izzy is worth seeing for Jean Smart's masterclass in acting.

Call Me Izzy

Studio 54, 254 W 54th St

Tickets $69-$299

Through August 17^th