Marlene Dietrich was one of the great icons from the Golden Age of Hollywood, known for her overt gender bending and ceaseless dedication to glamour.
She consumed the screen, set it alight, made men and women swoon alike.
German born and raised, Dietrich purred her dialogue, drizzling sex appeal over every scene, informing people with hypnotic rigour that she was a bad influence.
This September, local chanteuse Ali Bodycoat is all set to bring the spirit of Dietrich back to life when she appears Downstairs At His Maj in Minor Major Marlene.
‘First and foremost, I am not impersonating Marlene Dietrich,’ Bodycoat explained, fresh from her knock out opening number at STYLEAID where she appeared on the catwalk dripping in Aurelio Costerella feathers.
‘For me (this show is) a representation of her existence in our lifetime and how it’s influenced our culture through her transition from music to drama.
‘I think I find her a fascinating woman. I think that she held a lot of mystery for people. There isn’t a lot of documentation as to what she got up to in her personal life other than what she wanted the public to believe.’
Bodycoat, who is known in Perth for her work with the Ali Bodycoat Quintet, suggested Dietrich was the mistress of her own image, that she learnt to accentuate and control her features from the butterfly shaped shadow beneath her nostrils, to the white line down her nose to make it appear thinner right through to those eyebrows.
And that was just her features.
She pinned and tucked her hair ruthlessly and was known for spending hours in costume fittings, allegedly moving sequins back and forth by mere millimetres.
There were even parts of her private life that were equally constructed and contrived, Bodycoat explained.
‘I think that’s the strongest thing about her, that she embraced the fantasy and allowed you to create whatever it was you wanted to create about her,’ Bodycoat said of Dietrich’s X factor.
‘She went to a phenomenal effort to actually create what she made look effortless and so beautiful on screen.
‘There’s almost this vacuous element to her so you can fill in the dots I suppose. And I think that’s the true art and the true beauty of her as an artist and any artist we look at in this day and age that’s got an ‘it’ factor.
‘There aren’t that many of them.’
In Minor Major Marlene, Bodycoat brings together exquisite costumes and stunning visuals as well as some much loved Dietrich standards, including Lili Marlene, Amsterdam and Falling In Love Again.
It promises to be an amazing one-act show – written by Bodycoat herself and directed by Grant Capriotti – and a testament not only to a career which spanned 65 years but to a career that is blossoming and gaining strength here in Perth.
Of course, if there’s anyone besides Dietrich that Bodycoat wants to do justice to, it’s all of Dietrich’s fans.
‘I hope I deliver to the audience’s expectations. There are a lot of massive fans out there,’ Bodycoat explained.
‘I don’t think I would have taken this on 10 years ago, and I think that’s one of the reasons why for me it’s not about an impersonation of her, it’s about being true to her body of work and the music that appealed to me was music the audience would be familiar with, so they could breathe a sigh of relief and relax into what they hear because they’re familiar with it.
‘It’s pretty daunting to take something like this on because she is so loved and such a stylised woman; I have to be very careful. For me this is very much about an artistic montage of her work and I want to be true to the era that she travelled through.’
Bodycoat’s passion is evident, and no doubt will translate effortlessly to the intimate confines Downstairs At His Maj.
When asked, in closing, to describe Dietrich in one word, there is a lengthy pause before Bodycoat responds, ‘Impossible.
‘I think she’s impossible,’ she added. ‘She’s just a phenomenal woman.’
Minor Major Marlene runs from Thursday September 16 until Saturday September 18 Downstairs At His Maj with Tom O’Halloran on piano. www.bocsticketing.com.au
Scott-Patrick Mitchell
