2002 Pasadena Xena Convention

DISCLAIMER: The following is a purely subjective view of what happened during the convention weekend. Most quotes are paraphrased or simply my own impressions of the moment.


My Report: Evening 2 - Saturday

Love Letters

What can I say? It was brilliant, just as expected. Renee O'Connor and Michael Hurst are an extremely well matched pare. Their timing and flow was flawless, even when they flubbed. The first time was early on when Michael started reading Renee's lines - "Oh. That's you." LOL! They both laughed with embarrassment (and we laughed and applauded in support) and then without missing a beat, ROC pointedly repeated the lines MH had mistakenly read, the audience giggled, and she was immediately back into character continuing the play. The other mishap was later on when ROC got a few words jumbled in her mouth. She stopped and without hesitation said, "Let's try that again." The audience laughed and cheered her on again as ROC and MH grinned in amusement. She repeated the line and continued without a hitch. Consummate professionals all the way!!

I was amazed at the ease and genuine enjoyment ROC and MH expressed while performing. What really stood out for me, and showed their greatness as actors, was the way they listened to each other. For example: there were times when one of them would have an exceptionally long letter to read and the other would never miss a single inflection, responding in character to every word. You would never have know that one of their best friends had died the day before and that a couple of hours before they were both in tears. They seemed completely in control and relaxed and in their element.

ROC in particular seemed to relish her acerbic and often unhappy character. She especially thrilled at having a chance to curse and swear a lot. However, as is ROC's style, she never over-played anything. It all came out as naturally as if these were her very own words. She and MH were able to completely take me out of my reality and put me into the lives of these two characters. I could see everything playing out as they described it. The amazing thing was, they read everything as they were written - letters. I must also take a second to salute the author for such wonderful writing, and ROC and MH let the words and the emotions in the words speak for themselves. They never tried to make it more than simply communication between two characters through the written word. It was quite astounding, deeply moving, and poignantly beautiful.

My one and only quibble was that ROC's long bangs kept hanging down over the left side of her face as she looked down at the script. Thankfully, she would lift her head from time to time as her character appeared thoughtful of or amused at what MH's character was saying, giving us a full glimpse of that gorgeous face. Towards the end, she also pulled some of her hair back and over her ear, which opened up her face more, as well.

As for ROC herself, well, gee golly gosh! She is back to her mighty fit self, looking like a million bucks and more. With the dark auburn hair, she looks a bit older. I'm also thinking she thought it suited the character she was playing. Instead of looking up on stage and seeing Gabrielle's blonde tresses, we saw a mature young woman struttin' her genius. It sure worked for me, and looked fabulous! I never did like the strawberry blonde thing they tried on her in S1&2, but this darker red is quite stunning on her. And with the shorter hair... very chic! That's IT! She looks CHIC.

At play's end, they took a collective bow, waved and smiled to us, thanked us, and walked off stage. And that was the last we saw of Renee. *Sniff*

Copyright - Sarah Mears, 2/20/02; Edited: 2/25/02
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