By Bob Morrison
Full disclosure: I was paid to take the publicity photos for Margherita that appear in its advertising and program, and I first met actor Marian Licha at an ITVA-DC event more than a year ago.
In this play about Benito Mussolini's secret Jewish lover at the beginning of World War II, much is not as it seems and the obvious often turns out to be fantasy. Margherita Sarfatti is confidante and mentor to Il Duce--as well as his lover. The part is played with sensitivity and style by Marian Licha, whose portrayal of "Frida Vice-Versa" at last year's Capfringe was very well received.
At the height of his rise to power, Mussolini wants and needs the love letter he sent to Margherita. Does she still have them? If so, will she give them up? Jessica Lefkow directs with a sure hand, allowing ambiguities to remain unresolved and thus drawing us surely into the story.
More mystery: Dave Coyne plays a reporter who purports to represent an offer from the Washington Post to buy the letters for a handsome sum. But is he really who he claims to be?
In my view the show rises on the performance of Paul McLane as Mussolini. He struts and wheedles, threatens and cajoles, and plays a heartless tyrant playing the lover with intensity and restraint.
I'm old enough to remember the tons of confetti swept in yard-high windrows to the sides of downtown Pittsburgh streets following the surrender of the Axis powers, and the Life Magazine photo of the bodies of Mussolini and another of his lovers strung up by their heels by angry mobs in Rome. But this tale goes far beyond a period piece to explore the human mind and heart, the relationships of power, and the power of relationship.
For more photos of Margherita, please visit my Bonnie Briar Productions web site.
Cheers.
Bob
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