{"id":28308,"date":"2014-10-09T22:51:10","date_gmt":"2014-10-09T14:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=28308"},"modified":"2014-10-09T14:09:55","modified_gmt":"2014-10-09T06:09:55","slug":"nonnie-griffin-plays-a-future-marilyn-monroe-in-one-woman-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/10\/09\/nonnie-griffin-plays-a-future-marilyn-monroe-in-one-woman-play\/","title":{"rendered":"Nonnie Griffin plays a future Marilyn Monroe in one woman play"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Nonnie<\/a>
Nonnie Griffin. Photo by Rebecca West \/ thecanadianencyclopedia.ca<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TORONTO\u2014Eminent Toronto actress Nonnie Griffin says she has always adored, admired and identified with Marilyn Monroe.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was quite a knockout when I was younger, same kind of figure, and I got that kind of attention. I didn\u2019t know how to handle it. I had to be good, I had to keep away,\u201d the 80-year-old stage and screen veteran said in a recent interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I have some of her flaws. I don\u2019t take the pills and stuff like this, but I did quit drinking. These things can ruin you. I identified with her sensitivity, with her love of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Griffin channels those parallels and more in her own one-woman play, \u201cMarilyn\u2014After,\u201d which runs this Friday through Sunday at Tallulah\u2019s Cabaret at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre in Toronto. It plays there again from Oct. 16-19.<\/p>\n

The show sees Monroe (Griffin) coming back 50 years after her death to tell a story of her life, from the time she lived in an orphanage to her status as a sex symbol of the cinema and her final day.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get a picture of her humour and her sad times,\u201d said Griffin, wearing her Monroe costume: a flowing white pantsuit, pearls, red lipstick and her silver hair in a short, styled coif reminiscent of the screen siren.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe had a tough life. I don\u2019t think many would survive a life that she had. She was in 14 foster homes and was molested a few times, so how do you survive that? But she not only survived, she is the world\u2019s most famous movie star, really.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople love her to this day, it doesn\u2019t matter what age.\u201d<\/p>\n

Griffin said she, too, had some hard times growing up around Ontario and Quebec. Though her father came from a wealthy family (his father was Sir William Mackenzie, the builder of the Canadian Northern Railway), he didn\u2019t have much money himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were poor, so I understood people who are having tough times,\u201d said Griffin. \u201cI think that we share that, Marilyn and I. We have empathy for people who are down and out, or people who are being ignored and that sort of stuff. Empathy\u2014I think that\u2019s what makes a really good actor or actress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also like Monroe, Griffin said she also didn\u2019t have much confidence when she was young, but that changed when an acting teacher told her she was \u201ctremendous.\u201d Griffin went on to perform major roles in radio, TV and the theatre, both at home and abroad. She also wrote the play \u201cSister Annunciata\u2019s Secret,\u201d in which she played six different characters at the 2012 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething within myself, just like (Monroe), said: \u2018I am going to get somewhere. It may not be the top, but I\u2019m going to stay with it. I have to,\u2019\u201d said Griffin. \u201cIt\u2019s a feeling that you\u2019ve got something special that you want to share. So lots of things kept me going. I was quite spiritual, so is she.\u201d<\/p>\n

Griffin wrote \u201cMarilyn\u2014After\u201d and first staged it in May as part of the SpringWorks Indie Theatre and Arts Festival in Stratford, Ont. She said she embarked on the project on the suggestion of someone who saw her perform at the Edinburgh festival.<\/p>\n

She\u2019d long been compared to the late \u201cSome Like It Hot\u201d star, and had received many books on her from friends as gifts, so she went for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be compared to her is quite a compliment,\u201d said Griffin, slipping in and out of Monroe\u2019s dulcet, whispery tones throughout the interview. \u201cI\u2019m not exact copy, but close enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Griffin said she read \u201ctons\u201d of books while writing the show, which runs an hour and 20 minutes. She includes some \u201cshocking truths\u201d as well as controversial rumours about Monroe\u2019s life, and she admits she had to imagine some details.<\/p>\n

If Monroe were alive to see it, \u201cI hope she\u2019d be pleased. I think she would be,\u201d said Griffin, slipping into Monroe\u2019s voice again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think she\u2019d say, \u2018Thank you. Thank you for showing the real truth.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TORONTO\u2014Eminent Toronto actress Nonnie Griffin says she has always adored, admired and identified with Marilyn Monroe. \u201cI was quite a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":28309,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","mauthors-victoria-ahearn","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}