The name John Barrymore may not mean much to most people. Few people remember anything about him aside from the fact that he was an actor a long time ago or that he is somehow related to Drew Barrymore. But, for the audience at Barrymore's Ghost, a play written by Jason Miller, this debauched and charismatic character came alive on the stage.
Barrymore, or more accurately, his ghost, was played to perfection by senior Noah Stanzione. Stanzione led the audience through the downfalls and highlights of his life with the cynicism and regret of a once-great actor who drank himself into oblivion. Barrymore's Ghost seemed, at first, to be a man simply recounting his life, perhaps feeding the public's obsession with the private lives of famous people. But, as the play continued, Barrymore's enduring loneliness resonated with the audience.
Miller's one-man play followed Barrymore's life and his gift, or curse, of belonging to the greatest theatrical family. He talks about how he was the youngest child of two talented actors, as well as the brother of two of the greatest American actors, Ethel and Lionel Barrymore. An artist before trying journalism, Barrymore finally moved onto the stage. Then, in the early 1920s, he made the move to Hollywood, where he garnered worldwide fame.
Barrymore's Ghost started with Barrymore describing his last days, as he lay dying in a hospital. Even in death Barrymore was obsessed with fame. Later, as Barrymore examines the deaths of everyone in his family, he discovers that everyone in his family seemed to die alone.
This loneliness echoes throughout the rest of the play, as Barrymore talks about his "bus accidents" of marriages. Although many of the quirky stories that Barrymore shares are humorous, they also reflect the loneliness and paranoia which haunted Barrymore throughout his life. One night during Barrymore's first marriage, he got drunk and tried to behead his wife after he saw her flirting with the chauffeur. When she hid in the rooms of an artist friend living with the couple, Barrymore demanded that the artist return his wife. The artist did, under the condition that he could paint Barrymore's wife. Barrymore agreed, only to discover, much later, that the two had been having an affair. The play also followed Barrymore's most famous role as Hamlet, which comes back to haunt him as he contemplates his own existence.
In one of Barrymore's earlier films, Sea Beast -- a version of Moby Dick -- Barrymore played the equivalent of Ahab. In the Hollywood version, as Barrymore self-mockingly described, Ahab kills the whale and then reclaims his wife, instead of the ending from the book. However horrible the plot may have been, Barrymore was a success. As Barrymore described it, "I should have been a bank robber. For so little work, I made so much money."
But, Barrymore's life began to go downhill very fast as he drank harder and married younger, eventually having liver problems due to alcohol poisoning. At this time, Barrymore began discussing some of his darker secrets, such as sleeping with his stepmother and his desire to be invisible among other people. His drinking caught up with his acting as well, and Barrymore declined into low-quality movies and self-caricature.
The intensity and action never stopped, whether Barrymore was describing his wife's desire to see a show or angrily drawing stick figures on the theatre wall. In Stanzione's Barrymore, every emotion came through clearly and realistically, showing an old man on the verge of being ruined, yet still having pride. The depth and range of emotion needed to portray Barrymore was a hard feat, especially when the entire play was carried by one person, but Stanzione managed to pull it off. There was never an opportunity to be bored when Stanzione continually interacted with the audience, making the audience feel as if they were having an intimate conversation.
