"I remember laughing so hard, largely because of how Gridley, so relaxed in her comedy, played Juliet as someone who made sense to herself, if no one else, and what did she care? Gridley's comedic stance-part purveyor of nonsense, part paragon of common sense-put her squarely in the tradition of amazing women like Imogene Coca, and "Mad TV" 's Debra Wilson, comedians who made mental pratfalls a thing."
"Now Gridley appears in a piece she's written, "Watch Me Walk" (presented by Soho Rep, at Playwrights Horizons, through Feb. 8). It's a show about her hereditary spastic paraplegia, a condition she shares with her grandmother and her mother. Directed by the talented Eric Ting, "Watch Me Walk" is about many things, including what happens to the performer's primary asset, her body, when it is no longer the body that wanted to perform in the first place."
Anne Gridley first stood out in 2009 as Juliet in Nature Theatre of Oklahoma's inventive adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, opposite Robert M. Johanson. The adaptation grew from conversations and remembered fragments and showcased Gridley's relaxed comic precision and physical intelligence. Gridley's comedic trademark combined nonsense with common sense, aligning her with performers like Imogene Coca and Debra Wilson. In 2013 she continued to command large, ambitious work such as Life and Times. Gridley now presents a solo piece, Watch Me Walk, written by her and directed by Eric Ting, which confronts hereditary spastic paraplegia and questions the performer's changing relation to her body.
Read at The New Yorker
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