THE UNCENSORED STORIES
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Donna Blue Lachman is trying to figure out the meaning of her own meanderings in The Uncensored Stories, a frank, funny monologue about the last 25 years of her very unusual life. Lachman is the founder of the Blue Rider Theatre, where in recent years she has staged several introspective, deeply personal plays. The Demon Show, for example, was Lachman’s attempt to deal with her own “personal demons.” Frida: The Last Portrait allowed Lachman to explore the life of Frida Kahlo: an artist married to Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, she displayed the quirky creativity and ferocious independence Lachman herself embodies. Passing On was an eccentric, impressionistic look at the effect of a young woman’s death on her family and friends.
In After Mountains, More Mountains, Lachman dealt overtly for the first time with her own experience, without resorting to fictional disguise. She told about living in Haiti, where she dabbled in voodoo, tried to become a “mambo,” and got booted out of the country on three hours’ notice. Despite her forthright story telling, however, Lachman insists she censored herself somewhat in that show, so now she’s giving us The Uncensored Stories.
Lachman frequently loses that thread. Many of the stories seem to be in the show because they got big laughs in the past when she told them to friends. Her account of crashing a Chicago Columbus Day parade, for example, is hilarious. Wearing clown makeup, she marched in front of the parade as a “loud mime,” telling Zen stories and doing cartwheels. The police assumed she was part of the parade and left her alone, but when she saw Pat Nixon and ran up to shake her hand, she was instantly carried away by Secret Service agents. The story gets a big laugh, but like several anecdotes in the show it ends with a thud because Lachman has not quite figured out what the story says about her. Unlike Gray, who is ruthlessly introspective and honest about himself, Lachman seems more intent on getting a reaction from the audience.
