Speak Up! Sweet Matthew Martin by – Tim Gaskin

The new play Hush Up! Sweet Charlotte, starring Matthew Martin and Varla Jean Merman, is a side-splitting parody of the 1964 film Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte which starred Bette Davis and Olivia de Haviland. It is now playing thru August 31, 2005 at the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre - 620 Sutter Street (at Mason) in San Francisco . Fans of original film, or the over-the-top actors, should drop what they’re doing and get tickets to see what critics and audiences are calling a “Smash hit!”

Actor/Director Matthew Martin says the story is about a spinster named Charlotte Hollis who lives on a Southern plantation - to whom many with a motive - are trying to drive crazy. “The story, in quick summation finds Charlotte residing in a dilapidated plantation and the local Dept of Roads and Bridges are about to tear down that plantation she has called home for her entire life to build a highway. Charlotte will have none of this and refuses to go.”

In a panic she sends for a dear sweet cousin Miriam, played by Varla Jean Merman (aks Jeffery Roberson) to save the day. Miriam and the doctor are in cahoots - trying to drive poor Charlotte crazy in order to get the money and push dear sweet Charlotte over the edge- literally.”

Martin says there’s a little bit of the Charlotte character in all us. “"She’s a kind of misunderstood innocent in many ways," whispers Martin.

It’s a Southern gothic mystery where the lonely Charlotte woman is shunned by her community and is the main suspect of a grizzly murder some 40 years prior, of her intended, John Mayhew. Even though her guilt in the matter was never proven - John’s head and hand were never discovered - townspeople liken her to a modern-day Lizzie Borden. For this reason she lives a life isolated from society.

“The death of her lover is what drove her bonkers, as he was the love of her life,” Says Martin. “Everyone thinks Charlotte did it, Charlotte thinks Papa did it, and at the end of the play the murder mystery reveals who actually did it and involves the sordid detail of who is blackmailing whom.”

Martin isn’t just the star; he also directed the production and says meeting audience’s expectations was a challenge. “People have certain favorite parts of the movie like certain lines and etc, and if you deliver it just right, they love you for it. And if you’re just off, they hate you for it.”

He read in an Eartha Kitt’'s book that the best directors in the world are the ones that stay in the wings. He adds, “It’s true! So as a director, if I get the right person in the right part, I don’t get in their way.”

The show is running all summer long (thru August 31) Wednesday thru Saturday at 8:00 and Sundays at 2:00 pm at the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre. Martin adds that anyone who appreciates good theatre should come out to see Hush Up! “Good theatre is good theatre and that’s what we got!” Finishes Martin.

Lorraine Hansberry Theatre Box Office Phone (415) 474-8800, Tickets at TIX Union Square, www.ticketweb.com.

For More information visit: ww.lhtsf.org or www.makeitsoproductions.org.