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Call Me Izzy
It was a wise casting choice to engage Jean Smart for Call Me Izzy. Of course the beloved Hacks star, a six-time Emmy Award winner and Tony nominee, draws fans anxious to see her after her two-decade absence from Broadway. The solo vehicle by Jamie Wax currently runs at Studio 54 until August 24.
Director Sarna Lapine acutely shepherds the 90-minute play with brisk pacing and coherent staging. Once Izzy moves from her writing place in the bathroom, the switch in backdrop and expansion of the acting space arouses our interest. The production reveals a woman’s life under siege in a horrific marriage.
A poet in a 1989 backwater Louisiana trailer park
Smart inhabits and tells the story of Izzy, a Louisiana housewife in 1989. It’s a tragic revelation. Initially, Ferd and naive 17-year-old Izzy enjoyed each other as young newlyweds. Things changed after Izzy followed her passion for expressing her feelings through writing. Though the couple prospers and moves to a more upscale trailer park abutting a forest, their relationship disintegrates. But Izzy unaccountably stays with Ferd.
Through a series of flashbacks that jump around with no clear chronology, Izzy sparks us with her writing ambitions. With exuberance she explains her inspirations to write, her high school teacher who encouraged her, and a neighbor who takes her to a nearby library. Izzy reads Shakespeare. Inspired, she writes a sonnet. But she cannot share her passion with Ferd. It must be kept secret from her husband’s prying eyes.
Izzy tries to evolve through her writing
Over the years she fills journals and hides them away in a closet because Ferd despises such “uppity ways.” As his possession, he believes, she must remain on his intellectual level. Thus, he prevents her attending college though it might improve both of their lives. And a monetary award she wins to pursue a writing residency becomes a curse to be punished for, not a blessing for the couple.
Ferd’s violence increases. It takes place whenever she takes a step toward establishing her identity through poetry. He compels her to live an inner life apart from him. When she or others inadvertently reveal her talents, Ferd sees this as treason and beats her. At a particularly crucial turning point, he burns all of her journals, and sadistically forces her to watch her words, her lifeblood, go up in smoke. Izzy says that with this act he has killed her.
Izzy persists
Though Ferd controls her through violence and threats of violence, her inner life thrives. Izzy lets him believe he is the lord and master, and she bows to his every whim. But the inner resilience she has developed by writing poetry enables her to persist even after he burns her journals. Covertly, she evolves through her reading and writing.
That’s why at the top of the play she is in the trailor’s bathroom discussing blue tablets she has put in the toilet tank. She shows us how she writes there. In fact a good deal of the play takes place in the bathroom, where she can be alone in quiet to write, think – and speak to us.
Though the play does feel contrived, the production is memorable for Smart’s performance and the technical elements that support the play’s themes. Even Smart’s costumes (long flannel shirts and jeans by Tom Broecker), and the original music by T Bone Burnett and David Mansfield, cohere with the characterization and setting.
Smart’s portrayal
Smart portrays Izzy in a moment-to-moment performance. She takes on the voices of various characters as she relates Izzy’s story. Throughout, Smart shines as a powerhouse of feeling, evoking empathy and emotion. Though at times the accent she uses seems unclear and inexact, enough of the humor breaks through. Smart’s illuminating portrayal does override the play’s distracting artifices.
Nevertheless, because of the setting and background details, one can easily figure out the direction of events after the first 15 minutes. Additionally, the play’s predictability, and Izzy’s self-victimization in staying with the violent Ferd for years, strain one’s patience. Thank goodness for the talented Jean Smart whose affability and humility lead one to keep hoping for Izzy, despite knowing what the inevitable consequences will be.
Technical elements enliven the production
Mikiko Suzuki MacAdams’ scenic design aptly walls off the bathroom and squeezes in an oversized toilet with a lid that serves as a “table” where Izzy writes on toilet paper. Her sonnet and other poems are wadded up and hidden in a Tampax box in a cabinet. The toxically masculine Ferd would never look there. The irony of the bathroom setting is a wonderful touch. In its claustrophobic space Izzy finds solace in her wide imagination.
Lighting effects (by Donald Holder) enhance Smart’s performance and underscore the shifts in her emotion as she relates her story. The design of the bathroom in Izzy’s trailer home provides a contrast with the haunting, exterior forest projection that is her backyard. Finally, expanding the design to encompass the living/dining room of Izzy’s trailer home gives a welcome break from the cramped bathroom. MacAdams’ finely nuanced scenic design provides a compelling space for Smart to ground Izzy’s character.
Unfortunately, Izzy’s writing is not enough. A product of the folkways of her culture and her upbringing, Izzy stays with Ferd. She is unable to extract herself from these noxious influences which lead to her final actions at the play’s conclusion.
The subject matter of Call Me Izzy is important now more than ever. However, Izzy’s passivity is difficult to watch. It is why, when Smart’s Izzy expresses an interest in leaving Ferd, the audience audibly cheered her on. Too little, too late; we must be tortured by Izzy’s last choice which leaves an uncertain ending.
Call Me Izzy runs through August 24, 2025 at Studio 54.
