Jackie By Elfriede Jelinek reviewJackie

By Elfriede Jelinek

Translated by Gitta Honegger

Directed by Tea Alagic

Starring Tina Benko

Sets by Marsha Ginsberg, Costumes by Susan Hilferty,

Lights by Brian H Scott, Sound by Jane Shaw


Ominously set  by Marsha Ginsberg in an empty swimming pool strewn with leaves,  JACKIE begins with the fear-less Tina Benko (NYTW, Little Foxes) emerging from the floor grid burdened by three large male dummies and a few dangling dummy children. She addresses us candidly, admitting that her persona is all about her clothing, her smile, and the pills that keep her shadow at bay.

This shadow, or repression of her true physical reactions to her philandering husband and the Kennedy Regime, tears off the head of Marilyn Monroe’s effigy, throws up in her peach patent leather hand bag, dances a sexy shake-rattle-and roll, and bites her nails down to the bone.

The intricacy of revealing gestures and flashes of angst quickly stunted into wrist waving smiles was brilliant physical acting by a lucid actress, encouraged by a director unafraid to step outside the box, or maybe I should say unafraid to step inside Pandora’s box to reveal secrets that we ourselves  harbor.

The Women’s Project presented an inside view of the external icon of Jacqueline Lee “Jackie” Bouvier Kennedy Onassis…..The combination of Tina and Tea produced a fleshy psycho-physical portrait of a woman armored with her stunning style and that sexy southern thang I have always noticed with a mix of admiration and disdain. That thang is an armor of charm that southern women pass down from generation to generation. Jackie makes a point of giving kudos to her Mother who taught her how to “fish” high up.

Outside of feeling a bit weathered and worn-down after this play, which for me is a sure sign that it was a bit too long, I was thrilled and activated by the event. As I sat in the audience, I felt unhappy for this woman, and painfully aware of being part of the madding crowd who, for years, enjoyed pictures of  her and her outfits, her hair, her sunglasses. I admired her, wanted to be her, just like all the other girls in the 60’s and 70’s. This piece made me aware of the part I played in her misery, or is it her victory?

The beauty of this writer,Jelinek, is recognizing the inextricable link between the two; Jackie and Jack, fame and famine of the soul, misery and victory. And that thang called love is never ever mentioned, not once. That was the saddest thing of all.

I thank this team of remarkable artists for making into flesh what was for decades merely another American female perched and parched on a marble pedestal. I think Jackie would be happy and a bit relieved that the truth was out, doing a little twist and twirl up in icon heaven, sans pink Channel, sans pill box hat, sans dark sun glasses, all by her beautiful self.

This is my (Re)View from the Body

Fay Simpson

Author of The Lucid Body: A Guide for the Physical Actor