Thordis Simonsen is many things – travel guide, bold adventurer, genial storyteller among them. What she’s not, she’d be the first to admit, is a legit stage actor.
Herein lies the odd charm and inherent limitation of her one-woman “Dancing Girl: An American Woman’s Greek Village Odyssey.” It’s self-adapted from the Denverite’s compelling 1991 book about how she came to adopt a remote Greek village as her foster homeland.
There are unlimited theatrical possibilities that might yet turn “Dancing Girl” into an equally mystical stage experience, but Simonsen is not taking full advantage of the theatrical form. Her script isn’t so much a dramatic monologue as a series of randomly stitched book excerpts you’d expect – and likely enjoy – in a public-speaking setting.
And what possibilities there are, when the story is this intriguing. Simonsen went to Greece in 1982 to research village life for an anthropology course she was to teach. But she became so enamored with Elika and its people that she bought a home there. Actually, she bought a roofless, abandoned sheep corral she turned into a home by herself.
Her most compelling anecdotes are those that address cultural disparity bridged. Imagine a single, American woman who can’t speak a word of Greek arriving in an insulated village where she is different from everyone in every way. Where it is not appropriate for women to live alone, to do men’s work, to be childless. How does such an odd interloper, one who flies in the face of the community’s repressive gender foundations, gradually become fully accepted as a member of the community?
All great grist for a playwright, director and experienced theatrical creative team, all of whom are absent from Simonsen’s weekend-afternoon performances at the Victorian Playhouse. Simonsen communicates pieces of her story with only a bell, a red scarf, two stools and her words.
That story is a solid building block. We meet a widowed goatherd who dared to remarry – scandalous for a woman there. We learn how Simonsen endured loneliness, isolation and frigid winters. But while these
vignettes are interesting, they don’t make a play.
As a character study, audiences will want to know more – what motivated Simonsen to pull up stakes in America? Why did she prefer a roofless sheep corral in Greece to a bed in Denver? How did her foreign, independent presence in this village threaten its stability?
Simonsen should work with a playwright to fully explore these questions, fill in the gaps, create real dramatic structure, forge a coherent throughline and better communicate her full emotional catharsis.
The resulting staging, with a bona fide theatrical director, should be accentuated with visual, sound, light and musical accompaniment. It should be honed into a 90-minute one-act without intermission. And yes, Simonsen should consider turning over the performance to an actor. No matter how authentic and transformative Simonsen’s experiences were to her, she’s charmingly uncomfortable on stage. A professional actor might better bring full identity to Simonsen but also the many varied characters she doesn’t even attempt to embody.
It’s possible that fully theatricalizing her story is not Simonsen’s priority. If that’s the case, one must ask, what are we even doing here in a theater as opposed to a bookstore or library? If it is, why not take full advantage of the storytelling possibilities?
Theater critic John Moore can be reached at 303-820-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com.
“Dancing Girl” | ** RATING
MONOLOGUE|Written by and starring Thordis Simonsen|Victorian Playhouse, 4201 Hooker St.|THROUGH SEPT. 10|2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays | 1 hour, 50 minutes|$15|303-321-5403 or www.astragreece.com
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“NEW PLAY FESTIVAL” The Boulder Acting Group’s third annual fest includes “Shakespeare’s Wife,” by Clyde James Aragon (in which Shakespeare, Ben Jonson and Christopher Marlowe plot to burn down the Globe Theatre to collect on the insurance); “Passing the H.A.T.,” by Russell Weeks (about a dead man who must pass the Heavenly Aptitude Test); and “Compression of a Casualty,” by Kevin Doyle, based on transcripts of a CNN news broadcast on the death of a U.S. soldier in Iraq. 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through Sept. 3 at the Steinbaugh Pavilion, 824 Front St., Louisville (303-664-1674).
“THE ITALIAN-AMERICAN RECONCILIATION” It’s almost inconceivable that writer John Patrick Shanley is responsible for the romantic comedy “Moonstruck,” the graphic “Dirty Story” and the Tony-winning story of child abuse, “Doubt.” “Reconciliation,” which launches the 33rd season at OpenStage in Fort Collins, is an edgy 1988 romantic comedy set in New York’s Little Italy. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays (some Sundays and Thursdays) through Sept. 16 at the Lincoln Center Mini Theater, 417 W. Magnolia St. $13-$20 (970-221-6730).
-John Moore