The Trouble With Peggy

A live performance of Donna Blue Lachman's one-woman show, "The Problem with Peggy: Pieces of Guggenheim" performed at the Blue Rider Theatre.

0:28Copy video clip URL Open on the stage of a theater. Return to black screen.

2:19Copy video clip URL Return to stage and then black screen. A telephone is heard and a woman behind a screen is telling her husband to answer the telephone and tell the person on the other line that she is not home. She emerges from behind the screen with a dog and answers the phone after her husband doesn’t answer her. She talks with a man from the Guggenheim Museum. She apparently has had two Pollocks stolen. The woman becomes aware of the audience and begins talking with them after hanging up on Thomas. She talks about various artists and then waxes poetic about her daughter, who is one of her collected artists.

13:56Copy video clip URL A woman who speaks in a French accent speaks about Peggy Guggenheim; she is rather derisive.

15:23Copy video clip URL The lights return and Peggy appears and begins speaking. She talks about her family and paints them all in a bad light.

19:46Copy video clip URL Lee Krasner is projected on the screen that Peggy had disappeared behind and talks about the problems with Peggy, how she should have been a gossip columnist. When Peggy returns she continues talking about her family.

24:28Copy video clip URL The lights go down and Peggy does a quick change into a 1920s outfit and talks about her time in Paris, and the lovers she had.

32:04Copy video clip URL An unidentified voice talks about the problems with Peggy, how she should have been an accountant. She then continues talking about her love life and how she divorced. She details how she she bought paintings from artists desperate to leave Europe so that she can start a museum.

38:36Copy video clip URL Another French-accented voice talks about the different artistic movements. As she is talking, Peggy becomes a tragic figure in our eyes.

41:00Copy video clip URL Another French-accented voice talks. Peggy talks about Vichy France and how she was trying to escape with so many people and paintings.

45:00Copy video clip URL The video fragments and the audio cuts out.

45:40Copy video clip URL The video and audio return. Intermission begins soon after.

47:31Copy video clip URL The play restarts and a woman is projected on the screen talking about Peggy and the gallery that she started back in the States.

54:31Copy video clip URL An American talks about the trouble with Peggy. Peggy continues to talk about her time in NY and then goes on to talk about her time dealing with Jackson Pollock.

1:10:18Copy video clip URL A French-accented voice is projected on the screen and talks about the trouble with Peggy: how she didn’t discriminate. Peggy goes on to talk about how all of her friends are dead or dying, Bohemia is dead. She begins “talking” with her daughter Pegeen. This turns into a set of emotional monologues by the actress.

1:27:55Copy video clip URL We are finally returned to the start of the action and Peggy signs the contract giving her collection to the Guggenheim. Peggy again becomes aware of the audience and calls for Norman to show the audience out.

1:33:21Copy video clip URL The play ends and the actress takes her bows.

1:35:01Copy video clip URL The video ends.