Finding Elizabeth Taylor

What’s in a name? Does it portend success? Or can it doom one to a particular cycle of hardships? Writer-performer Elizabeth Claire Taylor tackles the implications of having the same name as an iconic movie star in this solo autobiographical show. Directed by Cheryl King, the painfully honest memoir shifts from carefree childhood vignettes (ballet auditions and squeezing into Bongo jeans) to heavier scenes as Taylor grapples with eating disorders, substance abuse and toxic relationships. With each memory she evokes, she draws parallels with Hollywood Liz’s own struggles and addictions. It starts to seem as if Taylor will never escape her namesake’s influence: clips of Liz’s most memorable screen moments are sprinkled throughout the show, and the Taylor before us even looks the part, with dark ringlets, smoky eyes and chunky jewels. But striking though the similarities are, the drama is most intense when Taylor sheds the comparisons and focuses on plumbing the depths of her own identity. After reliving a bad breakup and her start as a plus-size model, Taylor admits that sometimes she is nothing like the other Liz. Still, it wasn’t until the celebrity’s death that she felt free of the “raven-haired vixen of a shadow.” (Visit our Fringe Festival page for more reviews, and fringenyc.org for more information.)—Lindsey Thomas