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One-Woman Show Depicts Scathing Columnist Molly Ivins
Play runs through this weekend
By Bill McAllister
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ANCHORAGE - If you like your politics liberal and biting, there's a show for you at Cyrano’s Playhouse downtown.
Local actress Elizabeth Ware portrays the late newspaper columnist Molly Ivins in a one-woman show full of scathing observations about politicians.
Ivins, who died in 2007, was known for her withering descriptions of politicians all the way from the state capitol in Austin, Texas, to the White House.
Ivins’ life and writings have been condensed into an 80-minute one-woman play, “Red Hot Patriot.”
Actress Elizabeth Ware, under the direction of her husband, David Edgecombe, portrays the feisty Texan.
Ware said, "I’ve told just about everybody it's more fun that I’ve ever had on stage."
She said she intended only to interpret the words. "I actually avoided watching YouTube videos of her. I didn't want to make it an imitation of Molly."
But she says Alaskans who knew Ivins have told her she has found some of the same mannerisms and the Texan accent.
Much of the monologue can't be broadcast on television. But one of Ware's favorite anecdotes is Ivins commenting on a Texas state politician who got caught in a hoax.
"He ran away and was caught hiding in his mother's stereo cabinet. He always did want to be speaker."
As Ivins was famous for lampooning former President George W. Bush, this might not be a show for conservative Republicans. At the same time, Ware says she could take it out on both sides of the aisle.
"One thing that I like about what I know about Molly is that she would skewer, she was an equal opportunity skewerer. And, you know, she didn't care what side of the aisle they were from."
Edgecombe notes, "The tradition goes back to Mark Twain and Will Rogers. We have an American tradition of making fun of politics in the hope that we can change things."
Ware and Edgecombe, who are part of the theater faculty at UAA, have been collaborating for decades on stage as well as in life.
"I totally trust his vision,” Ware said. “Sometimes his way of getting there might not be exactly the same as mine. But we ultimately, I think, end up in the same place. I think you're happy with what we're doing."
Edgecombe told his wife, "Oh, I love what you're doing." These bedfellows have a hit about strange politics.
'Red Hot Patriot' plays Saturday night at 7 at Cyrano’s. The show closes with a matinee at 3 p.m. Sunday, but it will be revived for a weekend in Homer next month.
