Writer's Corner - Interviews: Marjorie Conn

Marjorie Conn is an actress and writer who lives in Provincetown and New York City. She has been performing plays each summer in Provincetown since 1994, including Pat Bond's Lorena Hickok and Eleanor Roosevelt: A Love Story. She has taken this play all over the United States, presenting it to sold-out audiences and standing ovations. Marjorie's play, The Honeymoon Years of Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok, can be thought of as a companion piece to Bond's work.

Ms. Conn also performs plays about Gertrude Stein, a Death Row prisoner (which she wrote in collaboration with an inmate in Texas), as well as the autobiographical performance piece Mistress Ecstasy's Erotic Circus.To see the schedule for the current Provincetown Fringe Festival, presented annually from late June through Labor Day in Provincetown, Massachusetts (at the tip of Cape Cod) click here, or visit Ms. Conn's personal web page, or you can email her.

Synopsis of Miss Lizzie A. Borden Invites You to Tea: Set in 1915, Lizzie speaks to guests she has invited over for tea, telling them about her trial and acquittal for the murder of her father and stepmother—the events leading up to it—as well as reminiscing fondly about her relationship with the celebrated actress Nance O'Neil.

How did you first become interested in the Lizzie Borden case?

I grew up in MA including New Bedford and I think as a child we all knew the “poem” about Lizzie Borden.

Why did you decide to write a play about her?

I didn't start my acting career until I was in my late 40's. I was living on Cape Cod and I decided to audition for some of the community theatre productions. I was continually cast in roles for about 4 years. Then I decided I needed to branch out from community theatre mainly because the roles available to me were starting to diminish because of my age and gender. I looked for one-woman shows that I could really "sink my teeth into.” In 1994, I found a play written by Pat Bond, Lorena Hickok and Eleanor Roosevelt: A Love Story, which is still a huge hit in Provincetown, MA. Pat Bond died in the early 90's and before she died, she was working on a play about Lizzie Borden. This renewed my interest and I read every book I could find about Lizzie and decided to write my own play. This was the first play I ever wrote. But the bottom line for me was having exciting roles to play. When you get to my age, it's seems the only roles are grandmothers or none at all. I went to one audition for an entire summer season and there wasn't one female role in my age range. So I not only decided to write my own plays but to start my own theatre company so I would have a place to perform the plays that I wrote. Miss Lizzie A. Borden Invites You to Tea premiered in Provincetown in the summer of 1995.

You portray Lizzie Borden in 1915, after Emma's leaving. What sources/resources influenced your telling of her life?

The play takes place around the time when Emma granted an interview to Edwin McGuire. I place the time of the play at exactly 21 years after the murders. Emma left Lizzie about 9 years after the murders. My sources are numerous as I actually read every book I could find. I am really an actor, not an historian so the writing of the play was done with acting in mind, which means that I took “poetic license.” Yet Lizzie Borden history buffs have seen the play and feel I have done a good job with the historical material. There were certain things I read that influenced the writing of the play. When I read the details of her will, I saw that she left much of her money to the Animal Rescue League of Fall River and Emma left much of her money to the Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Children. These were important facts because it helped find motives for Lizzie and Emma.

You subscribe to the theory that Lizzie committed the crimes while in the nude. Do you see her unique choice as related to her repressed Victorian environment?

I must admit I got the idea of committing the crimes in the nude from the movie starring Elizabeth Montgomery but it also occurred to me that the weakness in this theory was that it was so hot and humid on the day of the murders and if Lizzie did in fact commit the murders, I had to come up with a theory that explains why no bloody clothes were ever found and also why there was no blood trails from both murder scenes. So I came up with the idea of using a damp menstrual cloth to wipe up blood and perspiration. The repressed Victorian environment definitely has a part in the play. In the play when Lizzie is trying to decide how to accomplish the murders, she comes to the idea of doing the murders naked so as not to get blood all over her clothes. But then goes through moments of doubt of being naked. But I turn this around by Lizzie remembering that the only time she had some freedom and privacy was during her trip to Europe. Lizzie says, “What about the blood? I don't want to get blood all over my clothes. I can strip naked. That's a horrible thought, a terrible thought. I've never been seen naked by anyone in my life. And I've never seen anyone else naked. I'd never even looked at my own body, naked. Until I had that bath in Europe.” And then she hides the menstrual cloth with the blood in the slop pail with her real menstrual cloths. It occurred to me that the Victorian environment would stop the police from looking there. Lizzie says, “Then I washed all the blood from myself with the menstrual cloths and I put them into the slop pail with my real menstrual cloths. Delicacy will inhibit inspection.”

Your play makes it clear that you consider Lizzie Borden to have been a lesbian. How important was this understanding of her in crafting your portrayal of her?

I think her relationship with Shakespearean actress, Nance O’Neil, is extremely important to the play. It shows how Lizzie really made the most of her life after the murders. She traveled, had friends and relationships, parties. Also there had to be a reason that Emma leaves Lizzie and again from my research it seemed that Emma left around the same time Lizzie was involved with Nance. Emma lived out her days as a recluse whereas Lizzie flaunted her money and I believe had a fine life after the murders. I do not portray Lizzie as a lonely spinster, but as a woman who used her inherited money well. Lavishing gifts on her lover, buying property next to Maplecroft so she could have privacy, feeding birds and squirrels and rescuing animals. In fact my own dog is part of the play. I have an aging Greyhound named Frosting. I greet the audience members as they enter the theater since it is a party. Offer refreshments and Frosting greets everyone also and then when the play officially begins, Frosting just lays down on the floor and goes to sleep.

I love the way you get into Lizzie's head when she is planning the crime. How far into Lizzie's head did you have go to write this play?

As an actor, I think I have to get deep into the people I am portraying. When I portray Lizzie, I feel I am “deep into her head.” The writing of the play was more of an intellectual endeavor but when I am playing Lizzie all intellectualism goes out the window and I am just trying to tell “my story” to the audience who are the people helping me celebrate the anniversary of the day I “began to spread my wings.” I want to get the people who are at my party on my side. I want them to like me. I want them to understand about my life before the murders: How my father killed my pigeons, how Emma and I never had any privacy, how we had a guest room and yet Emma and I had bedrooms opening into each other, how my father was one of the richest men in Fall River and yet we had no real bathroom, just a water closet in the cellar, etc. When I talk about Lizzie, it’s really hard for me to talk about her in the third person. I also identify with Lizzie in her love for animals. I often foster special needs and older dogs and find homes for them. One of my foster dogs was a 7-month-old puppy with a deformed leg. This dog came from a Fall River shelter and I realized this was the Animal Rescue League to which Lizzie left her money and I felt a deep connection with her then. And I found a lovely home for the dog.

What have been your audience's responses to your Lizzie Borden play?

My audiences seem to love the play and all audiences are different. Some see the humor in it more than others. I have staged the play so that there is no 4th wall and I am directly talking to audience members. It’s staged in the round with my chairs interspersed with the audience chairs so sometimes I am sitting right next to an audience member. It makes the play very intimate and gives the audience a very intimate experience. As an actor it’s really easier to not be so close to the audience but I usually choose the risk-taking approach to make my plays more interesting.

Do you have any other Lizzie Borden pieces in the works or future plans for your play?

I would really love to see other people perform my play. A guy did it in drag one year and someone else did it for 5 performances in NY. I am thrilled about the publication of my book: Lost Lesbian Lives: 3 Plays by Marjorie Conn because I am hoping more people will want to perform Lizzie. It’s a great role for an actor of any age and open to many different interpretations. I have also edited the play so that it’s available in a 30-35 minute version and a 15-20 minute version. The play is normally about 70 minutes.