Tamara (play)
| Written by | John Krizanc |
|---|---|
| Date premiered | May 8, 1981 |
| Place premiered | Strachan House, Trinity-Bellwoods Park Toronto, Ontario |
| Original language | English |
| Subject | Painter Tamara de Lempicka |
| Setting | Il Vittoriale degli Italiani |
Tamara is a play of 1981 by John Krizanc about the painter Tamara de Lempicka. The play is based on the historical meeting of Gabriele d'Annunzio and Lempicka, who was hoping to be commissioned by d'Annunzio to paint his portrait. He had invited her to his villa at Gardone Riviera, on the southwest shore of Lake Garda, a villa now known as Il Vittoriale degli Italiani.
The play draws the audience into a labyrinthine story which reflects complicity in civic responsibility. Lempicka declines to use her voice, despite the power given it through her cultural preeminence. She sells her art to the highest bidder without comment.
In Tamara, the barrier between spectator and actor has been dissolved; the spaces intermingle, and spectators become actors on many stages. Tamara is postmodern theatre performed in a large house with ten actors performing simultaneous scenes in several different rooms; at other times there is simultaneous action in eleven rooms. The spectator can accompany the character of their choice and experience the story they choose, knowing that with the simultaneous performances they cannot experience the whole play. Thus the members of the audience make a series of choices, and depending upon these choices, each spectator creates and develops an individual viewing of it.
The play was premiered at Strachan House in Trinity-Bellwoods Park, Toronto, Canada, on May 8, 1981, and was published in book form the same year as Tamara: A Play.Tamara won two Dora Mavor Moore Awards in 1982, one as an outstanding new play, and another as an outstanding production.
In May, 1984, Tamara opened in Los Angeles, where it was to run for nine years. The Art Deco-styled American Legion Hall on Highland Ave in Hollywood was used as the venue. The hall was originally decorated with about a dozen paintings by the title character, Tamara de Lempicka, drawn from various collections including those of Barbra Streisand and Jack Nicholson, until the insurance costs proved prohibitive.
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