The Upcoming
  • Cinema & Tv
    • Movie reviews
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Show reviews
  • Music
    • Live music
  • Food & Drinks
    • News & Features
    • Restaurant & bar reviews
    • Interviews & Recipes
  • Theatre
  • Art
  • Travel & Lifestyle
  • Literature
  • Fashion & Beauty
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Competitions
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

New York CityNYC events & culture

Jackie at New York City Center

Jackie at New York City Center | Theater review
4 March 2013
Martina Dechevska
Avatar
Martina Dechevska
4 March 2013

Opening on March 5th at New York City Center is Jackie, a solo play by Elfriede Jelinek – author of The Piano Teacher, and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2004. The play’s subject, Jackie Kennedy Onassis, is an image indelibly cast in American history, an emblem of the death of America’s Golden Age, and a symbol of elegance, grace and female power. But what happens when the lights go out? What’s left when you remove the clothes, the make-up, the public persona – the woman beyond the cameras, is she an icon anymore?

Tina Benko portrays Jackie from all angles. Photo: Carol Rosegg.

The play captures the writer’s distinctive, highly feminized style. It starts with an open pit from which Jackie appears pulling out three silver dummies that symbolize the dead president and their dead children. Immaculately dressed in a beige trench coat, peach-colored dress, a scarf around her head, pearls, big sunglasses – the signature Jackie look – she says: “I am a little girl inside a woman. You should stay simple and that takes guts.” The play, directed by Tea Alagic, stars Tina Benko, who recently played the title role in Toni Morrison’s Desdemona at the Barbican Theatre in London. Benko aptly portrays Jackie from all angles, from the fake smile to the tears, from the pill-popping to the retro dancing to the puke in her bag. At Friday’s preview, she did some brilliant impromptu improvisation:  when a woman’s phone rang, without breaking character, Tina said in Jackie’s elite accent, “I can’t leave, but you can,” and the auditorium burst into laughter. 

Submission – a central topic in The Piano Teacher – is present here as well, but contrastingly in the form of submission to public image. “Look at everything in my clothes,” Jackie declaims, “I am dead but I won’t die.” Jelinek’s Jackie is confessing about her husband’s lovers, about the diseases he gave her before the pearls, about shapes and materials, about the blood sprayed over the pink Chanel suit she famously wore when JFK was assassinated, about the death itself. The floor is covered by autumn leaves and the cameras are gone; only Jackie is left – the one we wouldn’t see on the news. Marilyn Monroe is presented in the shape of Barbie dolls, a symbol of light, while Jackie hugs herself in gloom:  “There is nothing more vulnerable than light – one sweep of the hand and it’s gone, but darkness remains,” the heroine says.    

Jackie is part of Jelinek’s cycle of Princess Plays, all featuring female models such as Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Princess Di – a satirical counterpoint to Shakespeare’s histories, which in German are called Kings’ Plays. It is a deeply emotional yet controversial philosophical journey, an exploration of the inner pain and struggle of the USA’s ultimate 20th century princess, and a stylish monologue about the glamor and hypocrisy of everyday life.

Verdict: ••••

Martina Dechevska

Photos: Carol Rosegg

Jackie is on New York City centre until March 31st 2013, for further information or to book visit here.

Tina Benko portrays Jackie from all angles. Photo: Carol Rosegg.
Related Items

More in New York City

Four New York theatre shows you need to see this winter

The editorial unit
Read More

Radio City Music Hall Rockettes star in New York Spectacular

★★★★★
Patricia Contino
Read More

Five bars in NYC to enjoy a classic cocktail

Mariana Howard
Read More

Hedwig and the Angry Inch at the Belasco Theatre

★★★★★
Mariana Howard
Read More

Othello: A Dance in Three Acts at American Ballet Theatre

★★★★★
Patricia Contino
Read More

The Flatiron Hex at Dixon Place

★★★★★
Patricia Contino
Read More

Kopecky at Mercury Lounge

★★★★★
The editorial unit
Read More

Merrily We Roll Along at the Astoria Performing Arts Center

★★★★★
Patricia Contino
Read More

High River Sauces presents the third annual NYC Hot Sauce Expo

★★★★★
The editorial unit
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap
  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Nope
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Ed Fringe 2022: Hungry
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Kasabian – The Alchemist’s Euphoria
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Eiffel
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Tips for creating a peaceful home
    Feature of the week
  • Kasabian – The Alchemist’s Euphoria
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Rita at Charing Cross Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Ed Fringe 2022: Hungry
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • “Even people who’ve been through adversity might say ‘Well, I wouldn’t change anything because I wouldn’t be who I am'”: Eva Noblezada and Flula Borg on Luck
    Cinema & Tv
  • “Film offers a way of looking at the past, the present and the future simultaneously. That’s its wonder”: Sarah Beddington on Fadia’s Tree
    Cinema & Tv
  • Kasabian – The Alchemist’s Euphoria
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Rita at Charing Cross Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • “Even people who’ve been through adversity might say ‘Well, I wouldn’t change anything because I wouldn’t be who I am'”: Eva Noblezada and Flula Borg on Luck
    Cinema & Tv
  • Five Days at Memorial
    ★★★★★
    apple
  • South Facing Festival: Richard Ashcroft and his band were on impressive form from start to finish
    ★★★★★
    Live music
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why
With the support from:
International driving license

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

The Woman’s Day 10th Annual Red Dress Awards ceremony
Ann at the Vivian Beaumont Theater | Theater review