November 28, 2018  

Review of Peter Groom’s Dietrich

Dietrich

Natural  Duty

A  One  (Wo)Man  Show

Groom Peter as Dietrich

Went to Wilson’s Music Hall last Saturday to see this one man show, written and created by young actor Peter Groom – and it was a show and not quite a play, a 75 minute, no breaks, no interval show – what an evening, what a show.

Groom recounts a short version of the most traumatic years of Marlene Dietrich’s life and sings a dozen of her songs. He starts by mimicking Dietrich brilliantly and convincingly but over the course of the show he seems to think that evoking the sensuality and abstraction of “Marlene” is more important than slavish imitation. He is right. Groom’s androgynous manner and slim figure equip him to “be” Marlene with absolute conviction. He has mastered a feminine walk and Dietrich’s bold, almost aggressive stance.

Dietrich, a German woman, was plucked from the Berlin stage in 1939 by Hollywood director Josef von Sternberg and taken to the city of dreams, Hollywood. There she lived the nightmare of a patriotic German, who, loathing Nazism, took American citizenship, inevitably deserting her mother until after the war. Groom played Dietrich as a person displaced from her nation but also displaced from her personality, her loves and life. Her appeal to men emphasises this “quality” of abstraction, including abstraction about men, who she sees as subservient beings of a lower, more vulnerable order.

If you have never been to Wilton’s, it is a genuine, restored nineteenth century musical hall, which is well worth the visit, even if the Wapping location is not easy from Battersea. There is a bar and bar food, well at least pizza; the environment is very informal; the clientele was, at least on Saturday, 24th November 2018, fairly young and fairly gay.

And to make the perfect evening I got back to see Spurs thrash Chelsea 3:1 on Match of the Day and it should have been 6, 7 or 8:0. A very satisfactory end to the day.

Peter Groom was a five-star performer in Dietrich at the 2018 Edinburgh Festival and is apparently repeating the performance at the 2019 Brighton Festival. Go and see him/her.

About Tony Belton

Labour Councillor for Latchmere Ward 1972-2022, now Battersea Park Ward, London Borough of Wandsworth Ever hopeful Spurs supporter; Lane visit to the Lane, 1948 Olympics. Why don't they simply call the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, The Lane? Once understood IT but no longer

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