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ACTOR/PLAYWRIGHT ELLEN MCLAUGHLIN TAKES PRIMARY ROLE IN NEW PLAY "STRING OF PEARLS"
 New York, NY-- Actor, playwright and Barnard faculty member Ellen McLaughlin, who is best known for her Tony-winning performance as the Angel in Tony Kushner's play Angels in America , is performing in String of Pearls , a new play by playwright Michele Lowe at Primary Stages in New York City through November 7. The New York Times called the play hilarious and poignant with a "stellar" cast.
In the play, four female actors portray numerous characters, as the story follows an object, a string of pearls, as it travels through their hands and around the globe. The play begins with a series of monologues, one by McLaughlin, who plays the main character, 74-year old Beth. In a flashback to age 39, her husband is going to present her with a gift -- the string of pearls -- but dies of an aneurysm before he can do so. Beth finds the pearls with his belongings at the hospital. Now, she would like her granddaughter (played by Antoinette LaVecchia) to wear them for her wedding. But they are missing.
"I am both surprised and delighted by the diversity of the audience - it seems to speak to a lot of life stages and attracts both women and men and people from all walks of life," said McLaughlin.
The play evolves into duets among the actors, who each play many characters across time and in many different places, among them: a woman with a Midwestern accent; a Republican consultant and her housewife sister from Rhode Island; a Tunisian chambermaid and her greedy husband; and a Holocaust survivor in Paris, who buys the pearls at Boucheron. The play also travels to Missouri and Washington Heights in Manhattan. In the end, the story returns to the necklace's final owner, Beth, in a scene with her new love interest, a lesbian grave digger, Cindy.
The New York Times gave the play a strong review: "First, there's a stellar four-woman cast, which includes Ellen McLaughlin, the Tony Award-winning angel from Angels in America , and Mary Testa, the Tony-nominated alcoholic voice teacher from "On the Town." They are joined by Antoinette LaVecchia and Sharon Washington, who have impressive skills of their own. Then there's Ms. Lowe's script which is a highly satisfying, often hilarious blend of sex, satire, poignancy and absurdism, with an emphasis on women's relationships and the inevitability of both loss and happiness. And it's directed with knowing sparkle by Eric Simonson."
The play has both white and black characters and the actors reverse their own race. McLaughlin, who is white, plays a black character for the first time in her acting career. Sharon Washington, an African-American actor, plays a host of white characters. The plot with its many twists and turns, touches on race and class as well as love and the mother-daughter relationship.
"It is like a baton race - a real workout. It is a smart piece, which depicts a variety of different experiences that the women go through as the pearls exchange hands, resulting in a lot of changing of outfits backstage," McLaughlin said. "It is at the same time funny, but profound - I have enormous respect for everybody's talent and I am particularly impressed with Michele's economy of writing. She vividly depicts a multitude of people with just a few strokes, injecting humor and compassion into each small character."
McLaughlin recognizes herself equally both as an actor and a playwright. "I never felt the need to choose one over the other. I think I am a better writer for being an actor and a better actor for being a writer," McLaughlin said.
As an actor, she has worked both on and off Broadway and is best known for originating the role of Angel in Tony Kushner's Angels in America . McLaughlin played the Angel in all of the U.S. productions and on Broadway, for which she won the Tony Award. She has worked in collaboration with Kushner for the past 20 years. Her other works include Cordelia in Oregon Shakespeare Festival's King Lear, Hedda in "Hedda Gabler" at Berkeley Rep, Mrs. Alving in "Ghosts," Jenny in "Threepenny Opera" at Trinity Repertory Theater (Elliot Norton Award), and The Homebody in The Intimana's production of "Homebody/Kabul." Off Broadway, she has appeared as Paulinka in Kushner's "A Bright Room called Day" at the Public Theater, Alice in Manhattan Theater Club's "Blue Window," and as Agave in "The Bacchae" at LaMaMa.
McLaughlin has written nine plays that have been produced on and off Broadway, including "Days and Nights Within," "A Narrow Bed", "Helen," "The Persians," and "Oedipus." Her plays have been produced at the National Actors' Theater, The Public Theater, and the Guthrie Theater, MN, among others. She has won the Susan Smith Blackburn Award and the Lila Wallace Reader's Digest Writer's Award. An anthology of her work, The Greek Plays , is currently being published by Theatre Communications Group (TCG), and will be released in January 2005.
"String of Pearls" has been extended from October 24 to November 7. To purchase tickets or for more information, contact Primary Stages at www.primarystages.com or Telecharge. Discounted tickets are available for students.
Contact: Petra Tuomi, Barnard Office of Public Affairs, 212-854-7907, ptuomi@barnard.edu
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