Livia Berté
2017
Writing a play about Jim Morrison was in my mind for years.
I was just 19 when I was walking in this library full of all sorts of books and my eyes fell on this picture of this couple. A redhead girl, a stunning guy, Jim, not in his usual appearance, not the one we all know. They were not happy, not sad, they were just... something.
I’m 32 now.
I realized quite soon that this book was happening to become a coming-of-age story for me. It moved my world vision so deeply, so quickly... and I decided quite soon as well that I had to write a theatre play about Jim Morrison and The Doors.
But, as time was passing through, the idea looked to me too difficult and complicated. So I always left it aside.
Then, pushed to write this story in the end, I realized that the idea wasn’t complicated, it was just lying on the wrong perspective.
The play didn’t have to be about The Doors, we know all about that. The play had to be about Jim & Pam, one of the most beautiful, violent and interesting karmic love stories of all time.
As my perception became clear, the script was in my hands in a couple of weeks.
The book I was talking about is “Angels Dance and Angels Die: The Tragic Romance of Pamela and Jim Morrison”, by Patricia Butler.
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My name is Livia Berté and I’m mainly an actress. From the very beginning my goal was going to be to play Pam and to be perfect at it.
Having a good script, it was important to find a director with the same sensibility who wanted to adopt the project.
I was lucky enough to find this director in the person of Greg Fitch who brought the characters that I loved so much to life in an essential and amazing way and led the direction of my ideas from the beginning till the very end.
At the same time I was looking for the right place to stage it. I wanted the audience to feel immersed in the 70s and I was sure that no theatre space would have been good enough to make this spell come true as a real space.
When I found the Underdog Art Gallery it looked like a blessing. The space was spot on. In the central area of London Bridge. It had the flavor of another age. Something in the middle between a pub, an art gallery changing these amazing pieces of art every couple of weeks, and old talent scout lair. It reminded me of the first pictures I saw of the Whisky a Go Go since the first time I was crossing the main door.
The casting of the main characters took a while, a couple of months to be precise, and it was what delayed the process a little.
The final version of the script was ready in the end of May, but we couldn’t start work properly till the beginning of October. The problem was that each one of the characters was a real person, with a good number of pictures and documents that everyone can find on the web or in plenty of books. They had to be believable. And Jim Morrison is the most famous iconic rock star ever.
Weirdly enough, the most complicated characters, Jim and Patricia Kennealy (another of Jim's loves) played by Charles Warner and Cheryl Prince, were there for us since the first casting as if the three of us, Jim, Pam and Patricia would have had a connection with the characters, and as if we were meant to be there.
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“Love street” was finally staged for the first time at the Underdog Art Gallery on the 7th, 8th and 9th of November 2017, in its first version. The response of the audience was terrific.
We made full room for three nights.
People that were there just to enjoy the show went away claiming their wish to go home and research more about Jim and Pam’s life and love story.
Who was there as a fan of the group admitted to be totally impressed.
In particular one member of the audience, Yasmine Trendy, said: “I’m from America and once I was with a friend in her grandmother’s house. Her grandma was from the 70s and began to show us some pictures and videos of her at a young age. She apparently was in the same gang of Jim and Pamela and all of them were in the same pics together. Can you imagine my surprise?
Well you guys made it so well. You reminded me of those pictures and videos so much. The dresses, the movements, the way of lying on the floor. Oh my God! You looked exactly the same!”
Our next goal will be to bring the play to The Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2018 and from there to search for a very big producer.
According to a few industry people that came to watch the show, the script could easily be suited for a movie version.
So a lot more to come.
~ THESE ARE THE DETAILS OF THE SHOW PRODUCTION ~
FULL CAST
Charles Warner as Jim Morrison
Livia Berté as Pam Courson
Emma Read as Mirandi
Cheryl Prince as Patricia Kennealy
Sara Laratro as Nico
Greg Fitch as Bill Siddons
Benito Marlay as Ray Manzarek
Robert Bingham as John Densmore
Jack Coleby as Robby Krieger
Sarah Evans as the journalist
DIRECTOR Greg Fitch
WRITER Livia Berté
MOVEMENTS Cheryl Prince
PHOTOGRAPHY Alessandra Fraissinet and Valerio Lettieri
GRAPHIC DESIGN Francis Wu
