HIGH by Matthew Lombardo, directed by Rob Ruggiero, with Kathleen Turner, Evan Jonigkeit and Timothy Altmeyer. Presented by Mirvish Productions at the Royal Alexandra (260 King West). Previews Tuesday (May 8), opens Wednesday (May 9) and runs to May 13, Tuesday, Thursday-Saturday 8 pm, Wednesday and Sunday 7 pm, matinees Saturday-Sunday 2 pm. $50-$150. 416-872-1212. See listing.
The last time Kathleen Turner vamped across a Toronto stage, she played the original MILF, Mrs. Robinson, in The Graduate. Never one to shy away from controversy, Turner raised eyebrows for her nude scene.
“Yeah, all 20 seconds of it,” laughs the actor in her trademark husky voice.
This week she bares a different part of herself in High, a role that hits home in many ways. She plays Sister Jamison Connelly, an alcoholic nun who tries to rehabilitate a meth addict. The story made the star think about her own battle with the bottle.
“I went through a period when I was abusing alcohol,” she says in a Mirvish theatre green room during a whirlwind press day that would defeat a performer half her age.
Diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in the early 1990s, Turner could barely walk or turn her head.
“It was hard to even describe the pain,” she says. “I just had to live it. My joints were destroyed.”
Medication changed her once svelte figure, and corrective surgeries (nine in total) altered things ever so slowly. And so she turned to booze to self-medicate.
“I got to the point when I realized [alcohol] wasn’t just dulling the pain, it was dulling my brain. And that’s when I got scared. I couldn’t act if I couldn’t think.”
Her personal experience in a clinic – and the research she did for High with playwright Matthew Lombardo, himself a recovering meth addict – helped her get into the skin of her tough-talking nun.
“She went through a period when she was homeless for a few years,” says Turner. “She tells a story of going to the A&P baking supplies aisle to chug bottles of vanilla extract just to get some alcohol.”
Turner helped develop the piece during its pre-Broadway runs in Hartford, Cincinnati and St. Louis, engaging audiences in revealing talk-back sessions.
“There was this outpouring of, ‘My husband.. my father… my son… my best friend…,'” she says, “stories people felt compelled to share. At first, I wondered how I could be so naive as not to realize there was so much pain and addiction in the world. But it gave us more reason to do this play.”
Although her performance was praised during the Broadway run, she doesn’t hold back about her shock that it closed days after opening.
“Disappointment? Whoa! I thought I was going to die! Nothing like that’s ever happened to me before,” says the Tony and Oscar nominee. “But that’s also a reason we’re doing this.
“Still, in hindsight, we rushed it into New York. And we had a producer who really, truly damaged us.”
While Turner’s returned to the screen in series like Californication and the upcoming indie film The Perfect Family, she stands by theatre.
She’s been doing a solo show based on the late Texas journalist and shit-disturber Molly Ivins.
“It’s called Red Hot Patriot,” says Turner, with a grin. “I’m going to take it to Washington this fall, right before the election, just to inject a bit of feminism and liberalism into those bastards.”
Interview Clips
Turner on helping to develop High:
On why she loves the theatre:
On the discipline it takes to work in the theatre:
On her signature husky voice:
On chemistry with actors (Michael Douglas, William Hurt) and getting the camera to love you:
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