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THE VEILED SCREEN: A SECRET HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD!
The Veiled Screen: A Secret History of Hollywood! written and performed by Ernesto, after a sell-out run at London’s Drill Hall in late 2005, returned there in 2006 (both times with a sponsorship from the Arts Council of England). It is a one-man musical on the representation of gay characters in Hollywood films: From the early "invisible years", through the negative stereotypes of the 60s, to the wholesome depictions of modern day Hollywood. Ernesto also read pages from the play as part of a lecture in Mexico.
LONDON REVIEWS NOV’ 05 // APR ’06
Unmissable
QX
The Veiled Screen describes itself as a ‘secret history of Hollywood’. It’s the brainchild of versatile actor and singer Ernesto Tomasini, who with his extraordinary singing voice and puckish physical elegance manages to condense the unspoken legacy of gay cinema into just over an hour without foregoing honesty, spontaneity or humour.Tomasini dances, sings and laughs through the best part of a century, framing his collage through the eyes of Sebastian Venable, the homosexual poet who meets a grisly death in Tennessee Williams’ Suddenly Last Summer. In the Williams play (and subsequent film), Venable is never seen; he is an unspeakable. In Tomasini’s play, he muses on the various ‘screens’ that have barred the candid representation of gay subjects, from the repressed wartime desires of the 1940s to the blackmail narratives of the 1960s, the clipped Romantic comedies of Hollywood’s golden age to the horrors of AIDS in the 1980s. There is melancholy here, perhaps unavoidably; despite a nod to Brokeback Mountain, Tomasini makes it clear that we still have some way to go before gay life can inhabit a mainstream space in the movies. Yet we still howl as he takes on both the mother and son roles in a deft Psycho pastiche, and delight at his Doris Day, all saccharine soprano and incredulous mime. Add a little multimedia to the mix, and it’s a fluent, self-contained treat that will appeal to anyone who experiences a tremble of pleasure at the scent of popcorn, straight or gay.
The Stage
Hollywood’s ‘veiled’ sexuality
Ernesto Tomasini returns to the Drill Hall in a clever, bittersweet, one-man ‘musical extravaganza’ written and performed by Tomasini himself … The show works quite well. He manages to pull off some very funny, as well as touching, poignant moments.In this highly interactive, one man-show, Tomasini takes us on a surreal, dreamlike journey through the history of film …Tomasini proves to be an incredibly talented, versatile performer. He convincingly brings to the stage a range of memorable moments from film tying them in with his gay identity. He even covers major events in gay history.
He gives you a chance to relive classic movie moments, effortlessly highlighting just how campy and queer they really are Tomasini also manages to take us to the darker, quieter place in Sebastian’s mind. The show is skilfully written, with scenes of absurd comedy juxtaposed with purposely-facetious scenarios.
He begins as a silent film actor, brilliantly capturing the melodramatic mannerisms, takes a dramatic turn and arrives on stage as a giddy 1950s housewife and, amazingly, pulls off a wonderful falsetto. He performs a number of other iconic screen moments, ending with a powerful and ironic Academy Awards acceptance speech.
If you want an enjoyable and thoughtful night out, The Veiled Screen is your answer.
Gay.com UK
The tagline of this show is A Secret History of Hollywood. Echoing Lucy Powell's A Secret History of the Castrati, in which Ernesto Tomasini also starred, it's another one-man show that derives most of its humour from men acting effeminately. This time, however, the emphasis is on how the film industry treated homosexuals.
Tomasini camps it up from start to finish with an array of hysterical characters. The sketches pay homage to everything from The Sound of Music to Psycho and he rattles through them with dexterity. His ear for accents, his excellent singing voice and the exuberance with which he mocks the egos of film stars underpins his ingenious humour. Even audience participation becomes an exciting treat.
Having devised the piece himself, Tomasini is keen to criticise an industry that penalises its actors for being gay. To this end he opens and concludes by referencing Alla Nazimova's gay adaptation of Salome' and explaining how under-appreciated it was. The tone of reproach seems to work against the joyful wit of the rest of the show. But this device is easily masked by the slickness of Tomasini’s delightful performance and of the production itself. Simon Kenny’s design cleverly accommodates ever-changing locations, while director Amit Lahav keeps up the pace admirably while grounding the drama firmly in the silent film genre with clever signs distributed around the space. Where many have failed, the show makes a virtue of the cabaret layout of this intimate theatre.
H&H
Why can't all the shows in London be this good? Ernesto Tomasini plays every Hollywood archetype as the timeless Sebastian Venable, and in doing so examines how Hollywood treated its gay artists and storylines. It helps that Tomasini looks like a Hollywood heart-throb and sings like an angel with his amazing four-octave range. No wonder cabaret was banned in Weimar Germany. When it's done this well, it's fantastically dangerous.
Kultureflash |
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