A Woman of Appetites

Kathleen Turner comes to Philly kicking ass and taking names.

by A.D. Amorosi

Philadelphia Theatre Co FAIR LADY: After playing bold, brash women on Broadway and the big screen, Kathleen Turner takes on late journalist Molly Ivins, whose written words spoke loud and clear.

[ theater ]

With a voice like a bassoon — deep and elegant, measured and fluid — Kathleen Turner picks up the phone and says hello. The gravitas in her croon comes out right away as she gets to the meat of the matter: her time on the Broadway stage as Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1990), as Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate (2002), as Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (2005), and how those roles have landed her in Philadelphia Theatre Co.'s world première of Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins. Written by sister journalists Margaret and Allison Engel, the one-woman play — based on the writings of the late political columnist — takes on Ivins' brassy wit with a lust-for-life robustness that only Turner could handle.

City Paper: When you did Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? he told The New York Times that your Martha had "a look of voluptuousness, a woman of appetites, yes, but a look of having suffered, as well." That's got to stick with you. Do you think this suffering and resolve translate to Molly Ivins' story?

Kathleen Turner: A lot, actually. She died in 2007 of breast cancer after several bouts with it. I've suffered with rheumatoid arthritis for many years now. I just had my second knee replacement in November and had about nine operations in 12 years ... so I have an understanding of the script, like when she says, "Being sick makes the world smaller." It narrows rather than widens. [But] more than anything, it's her sense of humor and fun. She's all about the fight, and I dig that, boy.

CP: Look at what you've chosen theatrically and cinematically — women of great power, women who, when they suffer, suffer hard. No touchy-feely women here. Why's that?

KT: I always tell myself I'd like to do something easy and soft [laughs]. ... But those roles never attracted me. I don't care for roles where women are victims. It's OK to fail or screw up, but you gotta try. I don't play women who wait for their savior to come along and rescue them.

CP: What do you remember about Gemini, your first Broadway gig in 1978?

KT: I had just moved to Manhattan, landed an agent within a month of getting there and got on a soap — The Doctors — the same time I got Gemini. I'd get to NBC at 7 a.m., get out of there at 5 and hit the theater. I was 22. You could do those things when you're young. I wouldn't do that now, but it was exhilarating then.

CP: You played Tallulah Bankhead in the one-woman show Tallulah. How comfortable are you on stage by yourself?

KT: It's tough. Surprisingly for me, I found it lonely. It's great working off another actor. The one-woman production forces you to get rid of the fourth wall. So the audience is in it with you. Therefore it changes every night according to who's in the house, what they're feeling and how you're getting through to them. It's a long, sustained energy with no drop in the adrenaline.

CP: What did you like about these two journalists' script for Red Hot Patriot?

KT: I love Molly Ivins. I knew her. I'm on the board of People for the American Way and she's a great champion of the First Amendment. We worked together ... I admired — shared — her beliefs of citizenship and activism. The way she wrote, the way the play's constructed, is a series of stories. She wasn't a reporter. She just told one great story after another.

CP: What was the most improbable aspect of Ivins' role — the twist you didn't expect — and how did you deal with it?

KT: After [Ivins'] three really bad go-rounds with cancer, I didn't expect to feel how hard it must have been, how hard it might have felt for me had I gone through that. It shook me deeply. I hope with repetition, I get more thick-skinned.

CP: As time marches on, what's surprised you most about your acting?

KT: I knew that as I got older, the best roles for women would be in theater. I've been careful to keep up my skills since my start on the stage — I've seen too many actors get timid in live performance if they don't practice the art. I was careful to make sure that never happened to me.

(a_amorosi@citypaper.net)

Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins runs March 19-April 18, $46-$59, Philadelphia Theatre Co. at Suzanne Roberts Theatre, 480 S. Broad St., 215-985-0420, philadelphiatheatrecompany.org.