Monica Parks
Actor - Film / TV/ Theatre
SAG-AFTRA * AEA * CAEA
✶ REVIEWS (1 of 3)✶
Gem of the Ocean
by August Wilson, Shaw Festival, Jackie Maxwell Studio Theatre
Akin has directed a cast that provides the audience with ensemble acting equal to the very best ever seen at the Shaw. Leading the cast is American actor Monica Parks, who gives a performance of a quiet majesty beyond anything I have seen in years. Parks provides a masterclass in how to dominate a stage not through action but by concentrating the grandeur of her character in the simplest movement and the simplest inflection of voice.
Parks' keen eye surveys the world around her so piercingly that one can easily believe Ester is looking at it from the perspective of 285 years of experience. Parks wonderfully conveys the mingling of humour and compassion Ester feels for human beings who so foolishly continue to make the same mistakes. It is this mingling of humour and compassion that makes her see Citizen Barlow in a way no one else does. She knows his fear and she knows how to cure it with a ridiculous errand. Wilson's Aunt Ester is an unfathomably rich character and it is thrilling to see Parks inhabit her so completely.
Stagedoor.com
Christopher Hoile
Elegant Title
Just To Get Married
By Cicely Hamilton, Shaw Festival, Royal George Theeatre
In contrast, Parks' Mrs. Macartney exudes warmth and compassion. In the great scene that Hamilton writes of Mrs. Macartney pleading with Georgie at the train station to reconsider her situation and return home, Parks' Mrs. Macartney wins our sympathy more than does Georgie's rebellion because Parks' pleading is as rational as it is heartfelt. We understand that Georgie is in turmoil, but it is hard to see how anyone could not be grateful for all the understanding and affection that Mrs. Macartney shows her.
As a side note, the marvellous actor Monica Parks displays a phenomenally wide range this season from the uneducated 285 year-old- wise woman of GEM OF THE OCEAN to the supremely brilliant and witty British Mrs. Macartney of Hamilton's play. It is worth seeing both plays just to see her performances.
Stagedoor.com
Christopher Hoile
King Hedley II
by August Wilson, Portland Playhouse
As King attempts to sell stolen refrigerators with his accomplice Mister (Vin Shambry, in a tremendously vigorous performance), he also works to reconcile with his long-distant mother, Ruby, played with ferocity, melancholy and irrepressible charm by Monica Parks.
...Even as the cast peppers the labyrinthine tale with humor and warmth, Hedley remains a tragedy of grand and aching proportions. The characters may sing and joke, but they’ve got handguns in their pockets, ready to fire, and bombs in their souls, ready to detonate.
Willamette Week
Rebecca Jacobson
Mighty, searing performances burn straight through to the soul.
Hedley's estranged mother, Ruby, played with regal resignation by Monica Parks, left him at an early age to pursue a career as a singer, but encountered sexual exploitation instead of success. Her on again, off again lover Elmore (the charismatic film, TV, and stage actor John Cothran, Jr.) has struggled to leave his life as a grifter but never managed to rise above, and comes bearing a secret.
Portland Monthly
Aaron Scott
The whole cast is electric! I couldn’t imagine anyone else playing those roles. They actually inhabit them, as any trained professional actor would... Mr. Cothran, Jr. is a master. His monologues set up much of the history of the story and one is rapt when he waxes eloquent on them. And Ms. Parks does equally well with her reminisces of a world gone by and a life never realized. Mr. Shambry and Ms. Alexander round out this powerful cast, filling in solid support for the sad but powerful structure of this tale.
dennissparksreviews.blogspot.com
Dennis Sparks