Review: Let Me Down Easy at ZACH [Theatre]

Let Me Down Easy has had a long road to Austin. Begun in 1998 at Yale University Medical School, the show has taken many tangents and had many performance incarnations. The show Smith presents at Zach is unique to our town, so one cannot help but feel privileged to have seen it here.

While we may be biased in our praise, Smith is surely as unbiased in her performance and that objectivity has become a hallmark of her body of work thus far. The interviews she conducts and then uses to build her shows are verbatim. She recreates for us word-by-word, gesture-by-gesture, the moments of these lives we see on stage, proving herself a gifted and studied mimic who neither filters nor colors what she's seen. Smith covers many facets of her subjects, never lingering too long on any, and what we are left with is an amalgam portrait of what it means to be mortal, and to be capable of contemplating that mortality. As the dramaturg Gideon Lester states in the program, "One can only talk about death while thinking about survival and life."

The Arena stage at Zach is a welcoming place to see this show, and the venue suits it perfectly, as if each audience member is in conversation with her. The white set by Michael Raiford felt every bit as sterile and unforgiving as a hospital room, yet also provided a nice visual blank space in which to view these characters. Jason Amato's lights fleshed out the locales. All eyes are on Ms. Smith as the lone performer, yet she is beautifully directed by Leonard Foglia to offer all clear vantage of her work.

Without a doubt, Anna Deavere Smith is one of the great theater treasures of our time. Life, death, and the spaces between—these are what we see through this performer, and she in turn through those she has interviewed. Though Austin is filled with remarkable artists, it's not often that we play host to Smith's brand of theatrical experience; take advantage of her too-brief stay and go see this show.