Hartley has achieved the nearly impossible. She has taken the one-woman show to its most personal place and given it a universal life. Riveting and heartbreaking, "If You Get to Bethlehem, You’ve Gone Too Far," intimately directed by Don Eitner, is the latest step in her mission to bring to light a devastating family legacy. Prior to this production, she wrote her best-selling memoir, "Breaking the Silence," a silence of over 25 years about her family’s difficult trials, and began speaking to and forming organizations to promote her cause.

Now Hartley is bringing the key figures in her life to the stage. She takes us down the twisty, turning roads of her Connecticut upbringing, reflecting upon her life. Raised on the teachings of her behaviorist grandfather, John Broadus Watson (to neither coddle nor cuddle the child), by a mother raised on those same principles, a mother who made her call her "Polly" instead of "Mommy," she had to clamor for attention. That attention was never to be hers, until she found solace in the world of theater. Not to give anything away, suffice it to say, Hartley’s was not a warm and fuzzy childhood.

Using slight adjustments, she becomes the key figures in her life. She glides effortlessly from the chain-smoking, husky-voiced mother, to the drunken, depressive, yet alternately enthusiastic, father, the grandiose self-righteous grandfather, to the grounded intensity of her mentor in life and acting, Eva Le Gallienne, and the earthy stability offered through her confidante, Mother Dolores Hart. The flicking of the tobacco off the tongue of the smoker, the cigarette draped over the right shoulder, the hand tremor of another, the swagger, the slump, the subtle nuances of each transform fluidly with the cock of a head. It gets only a slight bit confusing in the early moments, particularly with who the grandfather is, but one senses a payoff to come, a resolution, and Hartley doesn’t disappoint. One of the most effective payoffs is, after portraying all these characters, she comes home, to play herself, pure, raw and unadulterated. Whether showing us the charming persona we’ve seen through the years on TV, commercials and film, or whether she’s screaming out in utter pain, when she’s Mariette, she lets us in.

How can one devastating family occurrence lead to a universal emotion? How many people in one audience could have experienced any similar fate? And yet, we were all touched, all tearful, all connected. By Hartley’s baring her soul, we in turn uncover our own in ways we least expect. Her emotions are so richly exposed that it frees the audience to go to places within themselves, not necessarily the same as hers, but just as naked. Hartley now rejoices in the mantra of all victims that has taken her years to come to grips with: "You are not alone." And by the end, whatever one’s own pain might be, it’s found a partner in Hartley’s work. Hartley has made the best of her father’s lessons, targeting her life, giving it a sharp focus, lovingly caressing the pain, and pulling upon the trigger of her inner emotions, and in effect, our own.

Written and Performed by Mariette Hartley

Directed by Don Eitner

At the Whitefire Theatre

13500 Ventura Boulevard

Sherman Oaks, CA 91423

Extended Again! Through April 30, 2006 (Dark March 24-26, April 16) Special Appearance by Dolores Hart at April 2 matinee