Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Carrie Fisher, Wishful Drinking Review

When I heard Carrie Fisher had a heart attack a few days ago I was surprised and hoped for her recovery. When I heard she had passed, I was shocked. How could someone I knew all my life, loved her work and was my age, suddenly die! Maybe by accident, but a health problem...no!!

Besides making me face my own mortality, I started thinking back on all the times I had seen her films (Star Wars of course), but even other films and then I remembered when I saw her one-woman show, Wishing Drinking in Boston. I did a review of the show at the time for a film review class I was taking at Emerson, and thought I'd share it now. She was so good, honest and funny. 

Carrie Fisher, Wishful Drinking
Review, October 12, 2008
Death, Divorce, Mental Illness, Depression; topics that just might distress most people but under the comedic agility of Carrie Fisher they are fodder for her personal triumphs as well as tragedies.  Wishful Drinking is a laugh-out-loud event!
Created by Carrie Fisher and directed by Tony Taccone Wishing Drinking, runs at the Huntington Boston University Theatre through October 26, illustrates Fisher’s resilience and recovery from childhood to present day. 
Fisher, a self professed veteran at the young age of thirteen when she was “plucked” from her home in Los Angeles, by her mother, the “icon” of a 50’s women, Debbie Reynolds to sing on the New York stage.  This act started Fisher down a road of high’s and low’s through two divorces; one to a gay man, and a multitude of drugs, alcohol and ultimately a hilarious one-woman show.
Fisher’s cathartic, intimate details of her therapy and the eventual salvage of her soul is completed laid bare for all to hear with sharp, witty one-liners.  Fisher has the ability to bring the most personal experiences of her life to, well life, in the energy of her delivery.  
Anyone under 40 may not even realize the nuances or references to the Reynolds’s (mother) and Eddie Fisher (father) and the Star Wars references, but for most the trip (no pun intended) is definitely worth taking.


No comments:

Post a Comment