Elizabeth McGovern BRings Ava Gardner’s World to Life in Chicago
In the late 1980s, a Large-Than-Life Movie Star from Hollywood’s Bygone Golden Age Began Late-Night Phone Calls to A British Journist She’d Never Met. Ava Gardner, One of the Silver Screen Era Original Sex Symbols, was hoping peter evans – a oneTime Columnist at London’s Daily Express – Would Ghostwrite Her Memoir and Make Her Some Money.
But the Relationship Crumbled, and Gardner Died in 1990, Well before Evans’ Book, “Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations,” was published.
That book Sat on Elizabeth McGovern’s Shelf for Years before the veteran actress picked it up and realized: this is a play. The result is a 90-minute Trip Back in TimeWhich Runs Through Oct. 12 at Chicago’s Studebaker Theater, Following a Run Run in New York.
McGovern is spreads Best Known for Portraying Cora Crawley in the Long-Running British Period Drama “Downton Abbey.” Plus, she’s had a robust the Career and Made Her Acting Debut in Robert Redford’s “Ordinary People,” Shot on Chicago’s North Shore, where she is from.
For this production, she not only stars as Gardner, but she is Also wrote the script. What Begin as a pragmatic decision has prove to be empowering.
“I COULDN’T FINT ANYONE ELSE TO WRITE IT, SO I HAD TO ROLL MY SLEEVES AND DO IT,” MCGOVERN SAID LAST WEEK, SPEING FROM A FINE ARTS BUILDING DRESSZING Room. “Having Been the Writer, Its Very Liberating to see that something isn’t working and that to just take it and fix it. I’ve absolutely love that.
Now in Her 60s, McGovern is Exploring New Skills and Forging the Next Chapter of Her Career. In some ways, the new experiences represent Opportunities available to her generation of Hollywood Women, Which Gardner and Her Peers Lacked. Still, Despite Progress In Gender Equity in the Industry, McGover Said’s the Plenty That Hasn’t Changed. She also says the cultural perception of Gardner has far underestimated her. AS MCGOVERN SEES IT, Gardner was a woman ahead of her time, who unapologetically ouned her sexuality and “was a full participant in her life Story.”
Backstage in Chicago, McGovern Wears a Bright Blue Blazer and Metallic Silver Pants. Her hair, Now Mostly Gray, Is Neatly Pulled Back. She has just arived in chicago from London (where she has lived for decades with her husband, the director and producer Simon Curtis), Havinga Squeezed in A Brief Trip Home Runs of “Ava” in New York and Chicago. The Production, which First Premiered in 2022 in London and Had a Run in Los Angeles, Will Go Next to Toronto.
As in evans’ book, mcgovern’s script unfolds along dual full lines. There’s the Story of Gardner’s Life, and then there’s the Developing Subject-Writer Relationship Between Gardner and Evans, Each with their Own Agenda. Their Interactions Began Wen Gardner, Who Was Recovering from A Stroke, Started Making Calls to Evans from London Home. Often after Imbibing, she would tel the non-instalist About her Career, Starring Alongside Humphrey Bogart and Clark Gable in Films Like “The Barefoot Contessa” and “Mogambo” and Her Short-Lowered to High-Powered Men: Frank Sinatra, Artie Shaw and Mickey RO.
Howver, Their Working Relationship Did Not Last. Gardner Fired Evans from the Project. McGovern Believes it was gangner guardner was unwilling to let Evans all the way intthe intimate, inner World. Only Decades late, in 2013, Shortly after Evans’ Own Death, was the book published.
McGOvern Said She Can Relations to Gardner’s Experience Event Though the Hollywood of the 1980s, Wen McGovern Was Just a Teenager, was a light from the studio System Gardner Began in.
“Think it was a very Macho World, and it still is, as much as we kick and screen,” she said. “Think the thing that is Changed is we are at Least Talking About it, Whereas I don’t think in ava gardner’s day were any ways to express the experience. It was so deeply Ingrained in every conscius Expection of what the Didn’t didn’t. Think that there is another option except endouring the machismo of the culture. ”
The Agency that Women of Gardner’s Era did – or did not – possess is part of what interests mcgovern in this story. Ultimately, The Show Grapples with the Question of Who Controls the narrative of someone life.
On Stage, Actor Aaron Costa Ganis Portrays Both evans and the men Throughout Gardner’s past as the show flashes between the wrist and subject talent of days gone by.
While mcgovern’s name is sura to draw some “Downton” fans to the Theater, The Show’s Director, Moritz von Stuelpnagel, cauteations that audiences Should not expecting to see a Crawley-Esque Character on Stage.
“This is an incredibly different role for her, and to think of the thing’s titillating about it, is how she can transform,” von stuelpnagel. “She’s been a remarkable actor for several decades, and anybody who knows her from downton ‘will be thrilled to rediscover her in this.”
“Ava” isn’t the only thing on mcgovern’s doogs this fall. She and her “Downton” Costars Also Power the Franchise’s Latest Film, which Curtis Directed. “The Grand Final” arived in theaters this month, and mcgovern confidently said it is their “best movie.” In chicago, on her fourth coffee of the day, McGovern admits she is ejausted from the whirllwind fall she has haad. Still, there’s a compart in retourning here.
“I Feel, Right Away, Very at home with the People,” McGovern Said. “Midwesterners are just so nice. I Feel like it the thing’s imprinted on with Most profoundly is probably those first nine years i spent in evanston.”
Years late, it was “Ordinary People” that Brought McGovern Back to the Midwest. Naturally, Sheys She Has Been Looking Back on Her Experience Working With Redford, Who Died Earlier this Month at the Age of 89. It ‘not just the vest and is mourning but also “Passion mevies and their potential, whic i think at the moment.
Now, “ava” has embolved her to work more of the Types of Work She Longs for: She already has a screenplay in the can. IT’S Early Days on that Project, Which She Cauctions May Never See the Light of Day. For now, mcgover is living in the present, which just so happens to be Hollywood, 1941.
Courtney Kueppers is an arts and culture Reporter at Wbez.