MARGA GOMEZ DOES IT AGAIN


NOT GETTING ANY YOUNGER written and performed by Marga Gomez


Older women are like aging strudels –
The crust may not be so lovely,
But the filling has come at last into its own.
Robert Farrar Capon

Marga Gomez is a comic genius. Yet, her comedy alone doesn’t begin to reflect her depth and insight. It is in her one woman shows that she paints such a strong vision of who she has become. She is a human being who defied convention and had the strength to become her own person at a time when that person was destined to be censured and despised by a society too frightened to recognize the value of difference.

Gomez’s latest production, NOT GETTING ANY YOUNGER is not about aging. It is about becoming someone who is comfortable in her own skin. As with all great theatrical works, we are given the pieces of the puzzle, but the audience must put it all together to come up with the message. We see the child of a controlling, vain mother and a determined father, a child who cannot understand the rules she needs to obey to fit into the pattern her parents try to carve for her. We see the young Gomez in New York’s Freedom Land Park dying to put out an imitation of the Great Chicago fire and meet Elsie the Borden Cow because she so loves dairy foods. “We went to Freedom Land to experience American History. Lucky for me it was fake American history.”

We all lie. All of us want to see ourselves as perfect beings. When reality yanks us off our pedestals, we either come to terms with what we really are, or go into some kind of shell to protect ourselves from truth. Gomez uses laughter to explain herself to her audience and to herself. The pace of the performance is amazing; indeed her 75 minute monologue seems to last but a moment. Gomez changes voices, switches from child to adult and swerves from fantasy to memory. Each transition is seamless and convincing. Under her veneer of laughter and satire, lies a poignant story of a little girl trying so hard to understand the whys grown ups never explain.

We meet Lisa the know-it-all, devious friend and her blustery, bull-headed ex-marine of a father who was never in the marines. We go with Gomez to buy clothes that no longer fit right and hear her try to adjust to new phrases that mean old things. Every time she looks in the mirror, pulls out a gray hair or wonders at a new dance craze, she realizes that all life is a race against time.

The text of this piece is very funny; but underneath the laughs is a telling portrait of what American society has become. NOT GETTING ANY YOUNGER paints the picture of a brave, fearless woman who can laugh at the world’s foibles and still have the courage to carve her own unique niche. Even as Gomez tells us the ways she deceives herself, she opens our own eyes to what we really are. Human beings have life spans, but Marga Gomez’s message is eternal. Give yourself the gift of seeing her in action, wherever she performs. She is a diamond.

Marga Gomez's NOT GETTING ANY YOUNGER
September 8 - October 23, 2011
The Marsh San Francisco
1062 Valencia St (@22 St) SF, CA 94110
Performances:
Thursdays & Fridays @ 8:00 pm
Saturdays @ 8:30 pm
Sundays @ 3:00 pm
No performance on Saturday, October 15
Tickets: by phone
Mon - Fri 1:00 - 4:00pm
415-282-3055
More Information
415-826-5750