Same Sh*t, Different Generation
Carole Eglash-Kosoff might be older than your grandmother, but a cursory peek at the title of her new one-woman show, I’ve Seen This Sh*t Before, makes it clear this is not your typical grandmother’s type of theater.
Eglash-Kosoff swears constantly throughout the 92-minute show – yes, timed to match her age – but that’s just a natural reaction to no longer caring what anybody thinks of her, she said.
“It turns out when you’re 92, you can get away with saying almost anything,” she said.
The show is actually the novelist-playwright-documentary filmmaker’s sixth produced script, but the very first in which she is herself performing. Mostly because…who else would?
The idea came when Eglash-Kosoff was searching for a new topic to write about after creating works about apartheid, the Civil War and her brother’s time as an orchestra leader at the Sahara Hotel in the early years of Las Vegas. She has written a book on the turbulent Southern California fashion industry in the 1980s (where she worked for many years), and “By One Vote,” a book whose dozen stories chronicle events that shaped American history as the result of a single deciding vote.
“A friend said, ‘You’re old. You’ve seen everything. Just pick something.’ So with all of the craziness going on these days, all I could think was that I have absolutely seen this sh*t before. The play actually came out of the title.”
Stories, jokes and blue language abound in the play, which is aided visually by some 100 projections and familiar American songs played by a trio of piano, bass and sax at the beginning and end, and sprinkled throughout the play for scene setting and transitions.
The upshot is that having lived through the Great Depression, World War II, and dozens of other political, economic and social crises, Eglash-Kosoff remains upbeat and hopeful.
“We have always had some degree of divisiveness in this country, although it’s gotten worse,” she said. “We’ve lost tolerance and empathy and respect for a difference of opinion. But half the country didn’t want to go into World War II or recognize Israel as a country in 1948. We’ve always had radical opinions. So in the end, I truly believe that the middle of the country will survive the extremes on both ends.
“The show is the craziness of a 92-year-old woman who literally has lived through all of this nuttiness before,” Eglash-Kosoff said. “I’m convinced that we’ll come out fine at the other end.”
Carole Eglash-Kosoff performs I’ve Seen This Sh*t Before Saturday & Sunday, April 25-26, at Center Stage Theater.
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