Though I was just eight years old when Mary Orr’s short story, The Wisdom of Eve, became the Oscar-lauded All About Eve in 1950, earning 14 nominations and winning six statues, I still remember the particular flavor of that era—the exaggerated stilted style of storytelling I saw on our black and white television.
Rosalind Russel was cloaked in flamboyance as Auntie Mame and Charles Heston lorded over Egypt in The Ten Commandments. Be it in comedy or drama, acting was often overacting. Granted, this was also when Marlon Brando came along and cried “Stella!” in A Streetcar Named Desire, and introduced the more authentic and visceral technique we now call “method.”
All of this came to mind while watching the final show of the Altarena Playhouse’s 2025 season, the play version of Orr’s story, oddly titled The Wisdom of Eve. The play is about an ambitious young woman whose desire to become a Broadway actor is achieved through manipulation, misrepresentation, lies and blackmail, and whose insidious efforts lead her to Hollywood. Calling that “wisdom” seems sardonic. She’s not quite diabolical like Iago, but they could have been pen pals.
Director Kimberly Ridgeway and her cast of actors did a good job of telling Eve’s story and the costumes and set help transport us back to that time. Men with close cropped hair wear white shirts and dark ties, the women don dresses and heels, and being theater people, better yet Broadway types, of course they smoke, and talk with their hands holding drinks. No one used Rosalind Russel’s baton-length cigarette holder, but I’m sure they imagined they were.
Eve, played by Anna Kosiarek—who was outstanding as Sister James in last season’s Doubt—has a singular objective of getting onstage so she can show her skills. The obstacle is the renowned theater queen Margo, played by Sindhu Singh. So the wannabe starlet resorts to weasling her way upward. This, friends, is the stuff of villainy. But it does not quite work, at least not in 2025.
I cannot blame the acting or directing; the efforts of those displayed on the High Street stage were impressive, but the world has changed since those days. All About Eve succeeded then because it revealed to the audience of its time how horrible actors were and how calculating show business was. Show biz people writhed and thrived in scandal and the public could not stop gawking. But we now have tabloid journalism, tabloid television, and tabloid social media. In some ways, TMZ, the E! Network and TikTok have made Orr’s story quaint and tepid. The Kardashians make Eve look like a girl scout.
This is not to say that The Wisdom of Eve is not entertaining. It works as a sort of museum piece because of the acting and directing. Kosiarek is oh-gosh innocent and charming until she begins to wreck everyone around her to get famous. In a stroke of genius costuming, she changes at one point and reveals that she’s wearing a corset beneath her clothes, as opposed to a modest slip. My oh my! Her opposite, Singh, plays Margo perfectly, crossing and uncrossing her legs, letting others dress and undress her, not quite demanding that her grapes be peeled, but close enough. For the record, her undergarments are thoroughly lady-like.
The men in the play are terrific at being weaklings to the chicanery employed by, really, all of the women. Lloyd the playwright is portrayed by Alan Kropp, Dan Allen is the director and intimate friend to Margo, and Tyler Null is stage manager and fool for Eve. For men of power and influence, all it takes is sweet talk and a kiss from young Eve to bring them to their knees. All three actors fall wonderfully. Dan Kolodny’s “Tally-Ho” Thompson and Allan’s other role, talent agent Hinkle, round out the feeble five who are but pawns in Eve’s sinister gambit. They’re comically outmatched.
Equally weak to Eve’s powers is Karen, wife to playwright Lloyd and best pal of Margo. Allison Gamlen is terrific in this somewhat hapless role. She’s a strong presence, has the chutzpah to challenge Eve, but, alas, eventually succumbs. Seems hell hath no fury like a hustler, especially when sporting a corset. Rounding out the cast is Altarena newcomer, Shelby Ballantyne, who doubles as the stagehand Leila and then the even fresher starlet-hopeful Vera. In ordinary and extraordinary clothes, Ballantyne shines.
All About Eve went on to become the source material for an episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Gilligan’s Island, The Simpsons and Family Guy. Seems we never tire of the immoral ingenue willing to hike her skirt to get ahead, whether satirical or straight-up. Was it foolish to think that feminism would vanquish the femme fatale? The Wisdom of Eve plays Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. until November 23. Visit the Altarena Playhouse website for more information and to purchase tickets.
Gene Kahane is the founder of the Foodbank Players, a lifelong teacher, and former Poet Laureate for the City of Alameda. Reach him at [email protected]. His writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Gene-Kahane.
