[NoHo Arts District, CA] – A NoHo Arts theatre review of How to Find a Husband in 37 Years or Longer, written and performed by JJ Pyle, directed by Mark Cirnigliaro, and produced by Solo Heroes at Whitefire Theatre’s Solofest 2023.
This is a play with a big heart. That’s not so obvious from the title. You might think is would be some cynical take on love. But, How to Find a Husband in 37 Years or Longer is very far from that. It’s a gentle, hilarious and extremely perceptive story about JJ Pyle and her life so far. It centres around her relationships with men. Romantically, sexually and most importantly it seems, her relationship with her father…which is complicated, as it is with most of us and our dads.
JJ has a wonderful stage presence. She recreates and cajoles the characters in her story with a kind of sweet veneration. Whatever the effect they had on her, negative or positive, or more realistically a combination of both, we see her reflected in them all.
She is an absolute master of storytelling. Sneaky even. The audience is lulled into the false sense that they are merely here to be entertained, amused and to passively listen. By the end of the show however, we are not only charmed and entranced, but we also understand a little more about ourselves and our patchwork connections with the people in our life.
JJ doesn’t judge. She simply recounts skilfully and with some kind of magical poignancy that defies logic. The result of all this alchemy is a tender portrait of her father, a kinder one of herself, and a sweet remorseless mirror to her grateful audience.
This is solo work at its most moving, delightful and earnest… so subtly done. As if it hardly happened at all and yet there it is, etched keenly in our memories and minds so that it becomes a reference point to everything. Like the greatest night spent with friends. Just talking and laughing and feeling safe. I love that feeling, don’t you? And after all this messy, unforgiving recent history of all of us, How to Find a Husband in 37 Years or Longer allows those fragrant and blessed memories of our lives before, when we were young and naive and unaware of every impact we could have on the world and each other to flow unencumbered by regret. I suppose it had a profoundly poetic effect on me. More sneakiness. And that’s all in the writing. And the performance.
As she talks about her life and shows us pieces of it, the epiphany is that every single second is vitally important and yet, ultimately, is any of it? A graceful, hilarious and defiant collision of logic and emotion. Wonderful!
I do hope JJ performs this gorgeous show again soon. Hollywood Fringe perhaps?
I know she is performing at the Edinburgh Fringe August, 3-26, 2023, theSpace@Surgeons Hall, Haldane Theatre! I’m sure they will absolutely love her!
Either way you can find out more about her and this brilliant show on her website http://jjpyle.com/news.php
