Everyone knows that the human body is frail, but that fact is often easy to forget. The harsh realities of disease and genocide seem so far removed from the everyday life of a college student in New England that their presence in the world is often overlooked. Anna Deavere Smith's newest show, "Let Me Down Easy," still in evolution, is a compilation of monologues taken word-for-word from a series of over 350 interviews Smith conducted over a decade-long process of examining human resilience and frailty.
Her interviewees range from cancer patients to doctors in post-Katrina New Orleans to survivors — and killers — in the Rwandan genocide. When she began the project, Smith was primarily interested in the durability and fragility of the human body, but as her journey progressed she realized that it was necessary to address the body's spiritual fortitude as well.
This introduced an element of grace that has become the connecting thread of the current stage of "Let Me Down Easy," now playing at the American Repertory Theatre (A.R.T.) in Cambridge.
Smith's unique category of one-woman show is a brilliant display of the connection of human life. She impersonates her interviewees on stage both vocally and physically, artfully changing only one or two costume pieces or props as she shifts personalities to visually aid the audience.
The effectiveness of the show stems from Smith's ability to not only connect the audience to her characters, but to connect their stories to one another. In a particularly chilling moment, after a monologue about how to live with cancer from Ann Richards, the former Governor of Texas, Smith becomes a Buddhist monk discussing a tradition his people follow after a death occurs. He describes the turning of the deceased's tea cup upside-down on the table, the symbol of being "done." As Smith speaks these words, she takes the tea cup she had held as Richards and turns it upside down on the table. A projection on the wall tells the audience that Richards passed away two years ago.
The play explores notions of grace found everywhere from church congregations in New England to genocide survivors in Africa. The audience is encouraged by A.R.T. to write down their own thoughts about grace and fragility in the program's insert, offering opportunities for a deeper connection to the events on stage.
Smith innovatively employs multimedia in the show. In order to facilitate a smooth transition between characters, the identity of each is projected on the upstage wall during their monologues. The industrial back wall also slides to the side to reveal strikingly large images and videos of horse racing, the Iraqi desert and an image of a Hutu in prison for murders committed during the Rwandan genocide, all visuals capable of inspiring a play of their own.
"Let Me Down Easy" is an exploration not so much of what the body goes through physically, but what it goes through emotionally and spiritually. Though many brutal murders and diseases are discussed in the show, it is the attitudes of the people and the way they frame the experiences of their own bodies that shine through.
One Rwandan survivor, Ingrid Inema, is asked if she forgives the men who killed her family. Her reply has enormous gravity — it is apparent that she has been thinking about this question for a long time. She says that she doesn't know if she would forgive them, but she lets them be "free." She says that she will not hold them to their deeds, but instead grants them "grace." Though on the surface it seems to be a simple word with a simple meaning, this is one of many issues that Smith explores with care and success.
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Let Me Down Easy
Conceived, written, and performed by Anna Deavere Smith
Directed by Eric Ting
at the American Repertory Theatre through Oct. 11
Tickets $39 to $79
