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A Play With Myself

nytheatre.com review by Robin Reed
August 15, 2005

What’s a girl to do when her dad documents just about every second of her life from birth to age sixteen?After the death of her father, Marina Lutz found tons of audio/video tapes and photos of her entire childhood through adolescence. She spent years sifting through it all, trying to make sense of this stuff she never even knew existed. She has put it all together in A Play with Myself, a solo work that is one of the fringiest of Fringe shows I’ve ever seen.My folks took tons of pictures of me as a kid. Heck, there are probably some old Super 8 films somewhere too. This is nothing compared to the lengths to which Mr. Lutz went to “preserve” Marina’s childhood. An audio tape of Marina singing at age three and another one of an interview that borders on interrogation after her first school dance sent chills down my spine. Mr. Lutz seemed to have a little case of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and a big case of creepy.So when your whole life is spent (even at times unknowingly) in front of a camera, what else would you do than become an actress? Well, if you’re Marina, you make a pit stop as a punk rockuber-groupie in New York and LA, kissing-and-telling your way into 15 minutes of bicoastal infamy, including mentions on Page Six and a spot on Geraldo.Marina Lutz is engaging and charismatic and she’s got a very unique manner of delivery, dry and incisive. She drops bombshells that speak to her father’s questionable motives as nonchalantly as she drops the names of the over 300 rockers she's bedded. A Play with Myself tells the story of a New York that no longer exists, one of punk rock and CBGB's, a time when Times Square was the place to be: edgy, a little dangerous, and a lot of fun. It simultaneously tells a tale of a little girl who honed her survivor instincts early and used them again and again throughout her life. But just when you think you might want to feel bad for her, she tells of how she got the money to join the Screen Actors Guild from a total stranger who walked into the bar she was tending, saw the nudie art photo of her on the bar (with a sign that said “Help Marina Join SAG. Suggested Donation: $900) and wrote her a check.This girl’s still got spunk. Oh, and she’s looking for help with a book and/or movie deal. Suggested Donation: $900.