Stage Notes: Liz One (Her Secret Diaries in the Land of 1000 Dances)

For almost 30 years, writer/director John Jesurun has been surprising and delighting audiences with his unique eye, ear and mind for a sophisticated, mysterious and repeatedly brilliant kind of theater. All his shows are different, and he has often been years ahead, utilizing the media technology other directors now routinely incorporate into their pieces. This past spring he staged a show called Firefall at Dance Theater Workshop, with a dozen young actors with laptops and a huge backdrop screen that had a constant video feed from the Internet, which the onstage actors were able to interact with, even to the point of purchasing items from eBay while the show was going on. With Liz One (Her Secret Diaries in the Land of 1000 Dances), John focuses on Queen Elizabeth I of England, who is played by Black-Eyed Susan, an original member of Charles Ludlam’s Ridiculous Theatrical Company. Ben Forster co-stars. I spoke with John, an old friend.

Hi John. How did a show about Queen Elizabeth come to you?
I’ve wanted to do it for a long time. I’ve been writing bits and pieces over the years. It’s Black-Eyed Susan as Queen Elizabeth the 1st and her secret diaries (an unwritten history that I’ve made up) which no one has heard before. Ben Forster plays a variety of people, but mostly he is her son that nobody knows about, a son that she’s hidden away in the palace.

Yes, the Virgin Queen is not exactly known for having a son.
Well, she and he decide to re-write her history. She’s writing her diary from the end of her life, and going backwards. It goes all over her life, going over some of the familiar issues that we know about, and some other things as well. For example, that she never had any children and was a virgin to the end of her life. That never happened, according to the play. That’s one of the main ideas that explains why Ben is there.

So Ben is her co-biographer of sorts?
He is re-writing her life with her, and he sometime argues with her too, like about why he is not going to inherit the throne after her. There is a back and forth relationship between Ben and Susan. Parts of it we wouldn’t have known, and some things could have happened. Like she becomes really interested in Buddhism. There’s a scene when someone comes back from Japan and tries to teach her how to meditate, and she gets interested in this. It’s funny and very serious too.

So this is a Queen Elizabeth we haven’t seen before.
There’s religion and her fight with the pope, and her fight with Spain. They have become Protestants in England by then. There’s a lot of interesting things which might have happened because she was very educated. I have her smuggling in books and pamphlets so she can see what is being said about her in other countries at the time. The other countries were Catholic and they wrote horrible things abut her. She was called “She-Wolf." It’s a very behind the scene, internal look, what you see behind the face of power. You hear conversations most people would never hear, her private image, hiding her son away, having people killed.

How about video?
I’m trying to keep it fairly simple, keeping the focus on Susan, and Ben too. The video will be used in a portraiture way, to get close-ups on their faces. Not a huge Internet thing, but a focus on the actors, really; a look at two actors within the story, in an intimate way. And also, it gives Susan a chance to be in the spotlight. She’s great in this part.

Running time?
One act; one hour and 15 minutes.

The Chocolate Factory, 5-49 49th Ave., Long Island City, Queens, (212) 352-3101. Oct. 14–31. Wed.–Sat., 8 p.m. $15.