The title, Becoming Mia Rose, may be misleading or mysterious like the text. Both it and the production are a mishmash apparently linking a character named Mia Rose with Marilyn Monroe. The soloist Clara Francesca is good to look at in her silky teal dress and she can move like crazy. Purveyors of an illogical theatrical fad call this, I think, abstract movement. It seems to try for artistic credibility by linking it with modern ballet that’s abstract, but here there’s little music. Clara Francesca does speak clearly. That’s a major asset since most of the dialogue is disconnected and some is delivered — what was director Blake Walton thinking? — a mile a minute. There’s even a little screaming, though not the lines in which Francesca breathily imitates Marilyn Monroe. Usually Marilyn sings for herself (“I Wanna Be Loved By You”) from behind a backdrop curtain where her image is projected. Because Marilyn “made something of herself” by singing and acting, supposedly Mia Rose or whoever she is (Mia only clearly is referenced toward the end of the presentation) should follow Marilyn’s example. Jackie, an unseen woman (the speaker’s friend or sub for mother?), figures prominently in the progression of events. She and/or Mom get reports of the men in the speaker’s life; many are warned against, like those that betrayed Marilyn. Stuff that takes place includes talking on a cell phone, hugging a Teddy bear, donning a blonde wig, fingering ends of hair, miming sodomy, posing, imitating a man’s voice, standing on a chair. (I recall that Clara Francesca was acclaimed for a SaraSolo 2016 Festival go at “Mrs. Marx” in which she stood on a chair for a considerable length of time.) Finally there’s a projected picture of Mia Rose — like Marilyn, behind the back curtain. Technical work includes having the auditorium go dark at projection showings and at one time red. There’s also a scene change announced by a loud sound of waves.
