Wishful Drinking

Written and performed by Carrie Fisher
Directed by Tony Taccone
Berkeley Repertory Theatre
February 8-March 30
http://www.berkeleyrep.org/

Photo: Kevin Berne

Can you believe that Princess Leia is middle-aged? Thats right, kiddies. Carrie Fisher, by her own admission, has passed the half-century mark and, also by her own admission, shes still a mess. But one of the greatest gifts in life is the ability to laugh at yourself and in that Fisher is truly blessed. Her one-woman show, Wishful Drinking, is one running joke about her life: her addictions, her mental instability, her failed marriages and her parents -- especially her parents.

Heard tell that Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher were in the audience at Berkeley Rep on opening night (albeit on opposite sides of the house). Also heard that they loved the show. Go figure. If one of my kids talked about me like that Id probably kill them. Well, maybe not but I sure wouldnt sit there and applaud. Their daughters two-and-a-half hour kvetch-fest, a kind of sequel to her wildly successful 1987 book Postcards From the Edge but with all the names named, is very funny indeed but parts of it sound like the revenge fantasies of every child who thinks their parents have betrayed them by getting divorced. You have to sense the pain underneath the glib facade. Nevertheless it must be great therapy to let it all hang out night after night (plus matinees) and even get paid for it.

Although dressed (by Christina Wright) in some kind of black bag-like thing with a belt and barefoot most of the time, Fisher is still attractive -- except maybe when she puts on
that horrible Leia earmuff wig. Smoking nonstop (clove cigarettes, honest) and swigging colas, she reaches out to her audience -- literally -- razzing them, giving them a mental health quiz and pulling people up on stage to participate in bits of shtick. A screen ofchanging photos (Alexander V. Nichols projections) and bits of recorded music back her up: everything from her fathers big hit Oh My Papa (We called it Oh My Faux Pas) to ex-husband Paul Simon (Youre listening to my alimony) to the theme from Star Wars (33 years ago George Lucas ruined my life).

Created and written by Fisher herself and directed by Berkeley Rep Artistic Director Tony Taccone, Wishful Drinking is a raucous, bawdy take on celebrity, rather like reading The National Enquirer for laughs. Except for the sobering fact that, while the Enquirer may get its facts from outer space, this is all true -- the showbiz childhood (she was performing in her mothers night club act in her early teens), the messy breakup and multiple marriages of her parents, bankruptcies (Eddie four times, Debby twice), the stays in rehab and the eventual diagnosis of alcoholism and bi-polar disorder. It all culminates in a more recent tragedy, waking up in bed next to a good friend and finding him dead. That one sent her into a post-traumatic depression that lasted a year.

Suzanne Weiss