Review: ‘Sidekicked’ in Sonoma

After the show, when asked where he got the material for such an intensely personal story, playwright Kim Powers responded saying. “I remember years ago reading about Vivian being in analysis, and immediately got the idea for the play,” he said.Yet, he admitted,“I just sat on it for years without doing anything, and then I finally began doing a ton of research that turned into the play.”

Powers had to search extensively, since there is no direct memoir from Vance or the psychoanalyst she saw for years while portraying Ethel Mertz, Lucy’s landlady/neighbor, friend and of course, “sidekick” on the groundbreaking TV show. While it is known that Vance and actor William Frawley didn’t get along, little else is known about her.

The play opens in Vance’s dressing room as she is preparing for the very last episode of the subsequent “Lucy & Desi Comedy Hour” is scheduled to air/be taped in 1960. Vance speaks to the theatre audience as if her psychoanalyst is in the room, and she ponders as to whether or not she should take up the offer to portray Ethel in a spin-off called “Fred & Ethel.”

As Powers notes, “Vivian wrote a memoir, but it never got published. I’ve read that there are copies of the manuscript floating around, but I’ve never been able to track it down,” he added. “And the shrink has never revealed anything about their work together.”

Despite a few spotty moments in the production when it’s not exactly clear what Vance’s history was before “I Love Lucy,” the play does spotlight pivotal moments.  As Powers explained, “I invented the framing device of her calling the psychoanalyst to this last night of filming the last episode. All the details Vivian reveals within are true – the spinoff, the other pilot she did, her early family life and her relationship with Lucy, and especially the breakdown.”

But, Powers continued, “I put them in the form of a sort of therapy situation. It always nagged at me that naturally the shrink would already know most of this from prior sessions, and I didn’t want her to keep saying ‘Remember when I told you about…’ etc. – so… Vivian really is just talking to the audience – and it still works really well.”

The entire monologue is about Vance’s inner-struggle. Her early life, her strained relationship with her disapproving mother, her failed marriages and the nervous breakdown. Each subject is riveting and the audience at Andrews Hall is impacted by Libby Oberlin’s portrayal of Vance.

“Libby owned the part” said longtime Sonoma resident and realtor Nada Rathbart, who saw a recent matinee. “I could relate to the play, even though I wasn’t as familiar with the TV show, because I am originally from Yugoslavia. Yet, I could understand her strained relationship with her mother and her mother’s lack of understanding and support for what Vivian Vance wanted to do and be.”

“My mother’s generation was from a different time and expectations for women then were very different than what women today can aim for and achieve,” Rathbart said.

This is another element that Powers reflect on — the choices Vance made to live the life she wanted to live. Vance’s choices were unconventional for the time. If women more than a century ago stepped outside of conventional roles it was a cause for alarm, if not scandal. Especially someone born in Cherryvale, Kansas, a quiet town of less than 3,000 people. Her strict very religious mother couldn’t imagine Vivian being anything more than a wife and mother.

“It’s always the rejection by a mother or father that causes a lot of pain and frustration for someone eager to live an independent and interesting life on their own,” said Jude Cameron,  Like Rathbart and many other Sonoma residents, Cameron wanted to know more about Vance because, “(Lucy) was a show that everyone watched when I was growing up.” And besides, added Cameron, “Vivian came from a small town like I did.” (Cameron is from a small town in upstate New York and like Vance, Cameron noted that there wasn’t many opportunities there, especially for women who wanted more out of life than marriage and children).

Pleased with the production and the positive response it has received thus far Sonoma Arts Live creative director Jamie Love said. “I was intrigued and wanted to know more about Vivian beyond the halo of curls and an apron. I wanted to find out the real story about this little-known and multifaceted Vivian.”

Amid the laughs there’s many subtle poignant moments in the play, which Oberlin does well. It was Vance’s mental breakdown that fascinated Powers, he said.  “And, in some ways I wrote the play just to get to that moment of reliving it.”

Powers succeeded in getting to the heart of a determined and talented woman. The play’s culmination is a testament to that fact. “She’s coming to a decision in her own head (about the future) and just saying the words aloud.”

Directed by Michael Ross, “Sidekicked” continues on the Rotary Stage at Andrews Hall through February 19. For tickets and more information visit Sonoma Arts Live.