Let Me Down Easy: Anna Deavere Smith Totally Lives in Her Vagina

Ana Billingsley
CHC Arts in NYC
October 27, 2009

Anna Deavere Smith’s one woman show, Let Me Down Easy, explores interpretations of death and dying through personal interviews. The complexity of the issue is apparent in the varying responses provided by Smith’s subjects, and yet the most moving aspect of the play is the actual portrayals. Smith’s talent as an astute observer and a skilled performer create an original representation that allows the audience to view the intense dialogue of death through windows of personal experience.

While the structure of Smith’s work is a documentary at its core, I think her portrayal of subjects through her own eyes creates an entirely new and original work. Her play is as much about the interviews themselves as it is about the responses. In each vignette, Smith effortlessly embodies a new person. These transformations are captivating not just because of the differing opinions presented by each subject, but also because of how Smith depicts them. Lauren Hutton, the supermodel, sits on the floor leaning casually against the couch completely comfortable in her own skin, taking long drags of a cigarette as she speaks of receiving the best health care. Michael Bentt, the heavyweight champion boxer, moves constantly, preparing to clean his shoes, shoulders hunched aggressively as he speaks of the last fight of his career. The details of Smith’s portrayals give life to each subject. By acting as her subjects did in their particular environment, through their particular body gestures, sitting posture, vowel pronunciation, pauses in speaking, and beverage choice; Smith introduces the audience to the subjects as people who live in the stories they’re telling. Smith’s incredible body language speaks for each of her subjects as convincingly as the actual dialogue, and makes the performance so much more than just a documentary.

Dying and death are neither simple subjects nor comfortable ones. The phrase Let Me Down Easy, that Smith pitches to her subjects, only temporarily distracts them from the gravity and finality of discussing death. And yet, all of them relate very different thoughts on death and dying based on personal experience. Smith provides a fascinating mosaic of opinions on body image, danger, health care, social status, professional responsibility, determination, failure, family, and terminal illness. The result is a truly open dialogue on the subject. This is both refreshing and informative because it allows the audience to come away with their own opinion on the subject. At times the subjects’ responses appear to be so off track that the audience forgets what the central theme of the play is. Smith does several things, however, that cleverly connect the vignettes. As she uses different props and clothing items, she leaves them on stage and throughout the entire play works her way around them; finding new spaces and aspects of the stage to portray each subject. The result is a constant reminder of each vignette and a fascinating collection of objects left on stage at the end of the performance. As Smith sheds a layer or prop and leaves it on stage, she pieces together the lives of the subjects she has interviewed. Its as if their varying thoughts create an audible dialogue throughout the play and their physical baggage creates a visual one. Smith reminds the audience that she is again telling the stories of real people, and that their collective voices create a thorough discussion of a complicated subject rather than a specific conclusion or answer.

Let Me Down Easy is an outstanding play that is both amazingly crafted and beautifully performed. Although I’ve seen one person plays before, Smith blew me away with her performance. It made no difference that none of the dialogue was her own, her eye for choosing questions and answers to portray was entirely original and strikingly honest, not to mention her choice of subjects widespread and strangely relatable. In addition, I think Smith’s depiction of death and dying as an open dialogue is a very true and poignant way to handle such a complex issue. Needless to say, I loved every minute of it.

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