Putting "Grey Gardens" on Stage

Gina Wilhelm Actress - Putting "Grey Gardens" on Stage

There are three actresses playing two women over several decades in the musical "Grey Gardens," which plays at Lyric Stage Company in Boston this month.

The play chronicles the experiences of Edith Bouvier Beale (Little Edie) and Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale (her mother, big Edie), cousin and aunt to first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

Already this year has seen an HBO movie about the Beales starring Drew Barrymore. This is in addition to the 1975 documentary about them, also titled "Grey Gardens."

The title refers to the women's estate, once staffed with servants, but which in the 70s was completely run-down, without electricity or running water.

All three actresses have done extensive research on the pair.

Leigh Barrett, who plays Big Edie in act I and then Little Edie in act II has the documentary on her iPod. She memorized lines from it to make sure she had the women's cadences down.

She also studied "The Bouviers: Portrait of an American Family" by John H. Davis, Little Edie's cousin.

Aimee Doherty, who plays a young Little Edie in act I with big dreams of becoming an actress, also studied Barrett's performance to make sure she had the other actress's mannerisms.

She says the most challenging part of the show is making sure that the audience believes that the "new" actresses in act II are the same person as in act I, just 30 years later.

Barrett admits, however, that the relationship between mother and daughter confuses her. "It's like they were frozen in time."

Sarah deLima, who plays Big Edie at age 79, says that the genius of the play is that at the end of show, the audience is divided.

On the one hand, they want Little Edie to leave the squalor of Grey Gardens and her mother's oppression and to finally be free.

On the other hand, they want her to be safe with her mother; they are sure she'll never make it out in the world.

Doherty agrees. "The end of this play kills me....Parts of this play are beautiful, and it is a love story between these two women, but it's awfully, awfully sad."

"Grey Gardens" runs May 8 through June 6 at Lyric Stage Company in Boston. Tickets are from from $29 to $54 and can be purchased by calling 617-585-5678.

Gina Wilhelm Actress