All My Stars (4)

By: Joanne McNeil
January 28, 2016

Last week I went to see Marjorie Prime at Playwrights Horizons.

The script and set design were unsurprising. I might have just as well seen The Lateness of the Hour on stage. But Lois Smith was tremendous and just for her performance, I do not regret the spendy evening in Hell’s Kitchen. The playwright got the idea to cast her because of her small but critical part in Minority Report:

It made me think that there should be more parts for seniors in stories of future worlds. Why isn’t this a sci-fi cliche? Interstellar kind of did this. I imagine PKD has, but I’m drawing a blank at which stories. The one clever bit about the Marjorie Prime script I can give it credit for is, Marjorie — Lois Smith — is said to be born in 1977. Which means her life and memories overlap with that of the audience. The play might have continued with this idea but instead ran out the clock with pop culture references that went nowhere and secretive family tragedy handled with all the subtlety of a daytime drama.

Born in 1930, making her film debut in East of Eden with James Dean, Lois Smith is a through-line to stage and movie legends of the past. A smarter production might have better situated our present as contrast to Marjorie Prime‘s future world so that Lois Smith’s character would serve as a thoughline to it. But instead I just never got the sense that anyone was thinking why our present would be the engine to this imagined future. It was just a long thought experiment of the kind that Rod Serling has already covered, literally a hundred times, let alone Charlie Brooker.

After I wrote last week’s newsletter, I couldn’t resist watching eXistenZ again. It’s on Netflix. Jennifer Jason Leigh’s hair is amazing in this movie. Her hair changes depending on level the game she is playing, and this partially crimped look is the best. It is not that very tight crimp from the 80s but a strong zigzag shape like the part in her hair. I haven’t tried it yet, but it appears as though the Conair Steam Waver infiniti Pro will iron hair to this shape. Will tell you how it goes, as I’m looking forward to lowkey cosplaying Allegra Geller.

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One in a weekly series in which Joanne McNeil recommends books, films, exhibitions, and more. You can also subscribe to the All My Stars newsletter here.

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All My Stars (4)

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