If you want to see one of the best performances of the year, run to the nearest phone and call Buntport for a ticket to THE REMBRANDT ROOM. A one-woman show at turns funny, educational, and poignant, this is a tour de force performance by Erin Rollman that will linger in the memory of audience members for decades. She stands toe-to-toe with Laura Norman’s GROUNDED fighter pilot of last season, Deb Curtis’ capricious SHIRLEY VALENTINE and Deb Persoff’s ROSE in years past.
With a bad haircut and dressed in a poorly fitting and obviously uncomfortable uniform, she stands guard in the Rembrandt room in the Hermitage Art Museum. Bored and desperate for action besides directing patrons to the bathrooms, she begins to display her considerable knowledge about Rembrandt’s painting of Danaë in front of which she stands each day all day.
In her lighthearted and self-admitted suspect discourse on the painting and art in general, she manages to touch on a variety of diverse subjects. Her “lesson” becomes more like a conversation full of asides and interruptions. Freemasonry, the life of Catherine the Great, her lover Potemkin, Rembrandt’s lighting techniques, the Greek Danaë myth — all became grist for her script. Her own slight disorder of the mind is revealed through her insistence of a flash of light in the corner that only she can see and her scratchy intercom conversation with Catherine. It is so sweet how all the aspects of her ramblings come together. In addition to explaining aspects of the composition and its history in her own quirky way, she also defends Catherine the Great who purchased the painting in 1772. Small details about her own feelings about the painting and her personal life begin to be dropped into the conversation. She discloses that the painting was vandalized in 1985 by a “madman” who stabbed Danaë in the abdomen and threw sulfuric acid on the surface. It was only put back on display after a twelve year restoration project. As more and more of her sad personal history is revealed, her emotional connection to the work emerges. She, like the painting, has layers stripped away and is still in need of repair. A staff member of the Museum made the comment that “the logic of restoration takes its own course.” We learn that our guard’s restoration is still under way. She bears the same physical scars as Danaë after the man with a knife did his damage.
It is so difficult to understand how a script like this could have been developed. It feels so much like an “off the top of the head” evening. It is as though there is no script; that Erin is just ad libbing random thoughts from her ever-present notebook of factoids. Another Buntport member when asked after the show how the writing developed replied modestly, “It’s what we do.”
Erin’s performance – if you haven’t gotten that by now – is phenomenal. Her boredom is complete (but fun to watch) and accompanied by fidgety adjustment of her clothing; her joy at finding an audience is almost manic; her personal revelations are so subtle and guardedly revealed as to become painful. Her audience laughed with and at her, patiently sat through her periods of boredom as she waited for patrons to leave so she could talk to us again, and shared her personal grief. We were riveted for the full ninety minutes. DON’T MISS THIS ONE!!!
A WOW factor of 10!!!
-Beki Pineda, April, 12, 2016 GetBoulder.com