MARLINTON, W.Va. (WVDN) – On Saturday, April 15, the Pocahontas County Opera House will present Doris Fields (also known as Lady D) in a one-woman show, “The Lady and the Empress,” at 7:30 p.m.
The stage play, written by Fields, is based on the life and music of blues legend Bessie Smith who was also known as the “Empress of the Blues.”
The performance runs approximately 90–100 minutes, including a 15-minute intermission, and features many of Smith’s most popular songs such as “T’ain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do” and “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out.”
In channeling the spirit of Smith, Fields melds past and present, old and new, to create a fully self-aware character.
Since there is only one known video of the singer performing and speaking, liberty was taken in creating a persona that meshes the personalities and talents of both Smith and Fields.
The play setting is clearly in Smith’s boudoir among her stylish clothes and accessories, but the audience is unaware of the year. Smith, however, is fully aware that she is no longer among the living, but she is eager to share a little about the amazing life that she lived.
Covering the Jim Crow era, the Harlem Renaissance and the Great Depression, Smith’s life was much too big to fit into 90 minutes but add to that a modern-era band in her bedroom to help her tell her tale, and theatergoers get a scene that comes across as totally reasonable.
As people evolve, so does the show, as Smith has no problem interacting and ad-libbing with her audience, who she has allowed into her intimate space. She shares much, but also leaves much unsaid.
Questions about her love life and sexuality are left rather vague; however, she was known as much for her singing and bawdy performances as she was for her bisexuality. She never learned to read or write, but she was a savvy businesswoman and bandleader. She never had children of her own, but she adopted the son of one of her chorus girls’ nieces.
“The Lady and the Empress” leaves much to the imagination without downplaying the “bigger than life” character that was Bessie Smith.
The Pocahontas County Opera House is a 250-seat, historic theater located in Marlinton. The Pocahontas County Opera House Foundation puts on an annual performance series to bring in both local and international musicians, theater groups and other performers to Pocahontas County.
The Pocahontas County Opera House is located at 818 Third Ave. in Marlinton.
