THE IRA FISTELL SHOW, KABC RADIO REVIEW

Saturday, January 28, 2006

 Little Mariette, Nobody’s Pet                 By Cynthia Citron

 Those who remember Mariette Hartley primarily as the needling wife of James Garner in those warm and funny Polaroid commercials of the 1970s and ‘80s will undoubtedly be surprised by her autobiographical one-woman show, “If You Get to Bethlehem, You’ve Gone Too Far.” As creator and star of this angst-ridden and terribly moving show, which began its world premiere performances January 21st at the Whitefire Theater in Sherman Oaks, Hartley revisits a life of hardship, addiction, and debilitating self-doubt.  As a four-year-old determined to be “perfect” in order to win the love and approval of her parents, she flits around the stage continually demanding attention.  Buoyed by her father’s inconsistent devotion and deflated by her mother’s indifference, she struggles to survive  in a netherworld of mixed messages and confusion.Even her name implied a confused identity: Originally named Mary Loretta, she changed it to Mariette.  But her father called her Trilby, a reference to the fictional French shopgirl who became the singing sensation of Europe under the cruel and domineering direction of the hypnotist Svengali.  Presumably, Mariette’s father saw himself as her Svengali.But perhaps the most devastating influence in her childhood was her mother’s father: the highly respected behavioral psychologist John Broadus Watson.  Watson believed that he could take a dozen infants at random and, through nurture rather than nature, train them to become whatever sort of person he wished them to become.  He contended that their external behavior was all-important, regardless of their wishes, interests, or intent.  Thus Mariette’s parents learned that it was counter-productive to hug her or cuddle her or even to pick her up when she cried.  In one of the most moving moments of the play, Mariette’s mother, on her deathbed, allows the adult Mariette to hold her hand for the very first time in her life.This difficult home environment was not made any easier by the fact that both her parents were lifelong alcoholics.  Unable to break his addiction, her father eventually shot himself, leaving Mariette and her mother to clean his blood and pieces of his brain from the walls and carpeting.  Later, her mother also attempted suicide, as did Mariette, who also wrestled with her own alcoholism and was eventually diagnosed as bipolar.Through all this angst she was pursuing a career in acting.  Trained in classical theater and mentored by Eva LeGallienne and the formidable John Houseman, she appeared in more than 50 films, most of them less than blockbusters and highly forgettable.   But she has also appeared nearly 100 times on the best programs on TV.  And this current play, which she fills with heart-felt emotion, confirms her as one of the finest actors of her generation.But “If You Get To Bethlehem” has little to say about her career successes.  It is more a cathartic expression of her life with her parents and a psychotic first husband who beat her throughout the marriage.  It is a stomach-churning journey, filled with anxiety, tension, and tears---from her fidgety four-year-old to the woman she is today: a calm 65-year-old who has set up the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and personally counsels troubled individuals and their families.Her play is a testament to that life journey, and to her parents, whom she deals with humorously and with affection.  Despite the obviously devastating effect they had on her, she gives them generous credit.  “My dad taught me how to live,” she says.  “And my mother taught me how to die.”“If You Get to Bethlehem, You’ve Gone Too Far”, directed by Don Eitner and creatively lit by J. Kent Inasy, will continue at the Whitefire Theater.