At the Whitefire Theatre in Sherman Oaks. Alessandra Assaf Triumphs in “Twelve O’clock Tales with Ava Gardner” as an Aging Legend Revels in the Past and Battles the Present.
By John Lavitt
Sherman Oaks, CA (The Hollywood Times) 01/18/2023 – In “Twelve O’clock Tales with Ava Gardner” at the Whitefire Theatre in Sherman Oaks, Alessandra Asaf wrote a challenging tour de force for herself with Michael Lorre. Over an hour in length with no intermission, the one-woman show demands the actor to be on point from the first lighting cue to the final blackout. Up to the challenge with aplomb and style, Alessandra Asaf brings an aging Ava Gardner back to life. Expertly directed by Michael A. Shepperd, the show will run every Sunday at 2 p.m. from January 15th through March 5th, and it should not be missed.
However, if you are looking for the young bombshell that took Hollywood by storm, the Ava Gardner of The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952), or The Barefoot Contessa (1954), you have been fooled by the poster art. The show squarely presents a middle-aged Ava Gardner (52) during the shooting of the disaster blockbuster, Earthquake (1974) with Charlton Heston. From the perspective of history, Alessandra Asaf is the ideal actor to bring this period of a legend back to life. She inhabits the role with the knowledge gained from researching and writing the script.
Ava Gardner ponders the past in her dressing room, waiting forever to be called to the set of her first big-budget starring role in over a decade. She speaks with her longtime African-American assistant, Mearene “Reenie” Jordan, and into a tape recorder for the ghostwriter of the memoir she hopes to sell. With the audience standing in for Jordan, we experience the most intimate recollections of a start-studded career that overflows with failed loved affairs with famous yet somewhat infamous men.
From the philandering of Mickey Rooney and Artie Shaw’s narcissism to Frank Sinatra’s inconsistencies and the physical abuse of George C. Scott, every man that Ava Gardner chooses to love proves unworthy. Although she is willing to give her to each of them entirely, they are either too scared, childish, self-involved, or nasty to love her back as she deserves. Thus, she drowns herself in booze, consoles herself with female friendships, and battles with the ghosts of her childhood.
Although she grew up the daughter of poor tobacco sharecroppers in Grabtown, North Carolina, her childhood was far from unhappy. Indeed, she loved being a country girl because she loved the family that surrounded her. Most importantly, she idolized the love of her parents and their unyielding dedication and fidelity to each other.
While the ghosts of childhood trauma haunt many people, Ava Gardner is haunted by the ghost of true love. She longed to achieve in gold what her parents had achieved in dirt. She cannot forget when her father embraced her and said lovingly, “Daughter, you’re doing just fine.”
In Hollywood, dubbed “The World’s Most Beautiful Animal” by publicists, she was reduced to a sex symbol that was always wanted but never truly loved. As Ava Gardner, Alessandra Asaf recounts her life with a boldness that defies the pathos. Yes, there was a tragedy, and there were trampled expectations, but the spirited woman also said, “I never met a swear jar I couldn’t fill.” And “I never wanted to be loved because I was beautiful. I wanted to be beautiful because I was loved.”
Although people treat you the way you teach them to treat you, so many people in Hollywood could not be taught. Ava Gardner was crushed by a town that so often was incapable of love. Although she was a legendary beauty, all she wanted was to be loved. She knew that such true love would make anyone beautiful inside and out. Ultimately, the message that Alessandra Asaf shares with us is a clarion call to champion love above all else.
Photos by Frank Ishman
