Acerbic wit of Dorothy Parker was always laced with truth

If you are under a certain age, perhaps not. More's the pity.

Parker (1893-1967) was a writer and wit who was one of the famous folks who made social and literary history during the last century. Parker and fellow scribes such as Robert Benchley, George S. Kaufman, Harold Ross and Alexander Woollcott made up what was known as the Algonquin Round Table at New York City's Algonquin Hotel. This was the 1920s, and they would sit around, drink martinis, be terribly clever and smart, and make news. In the mid-years of the last century, her name was synonymous with a razor-sharp tongue and withering wit.

"The first thing I do in the morning is brush my teeth and sharpen my tongue," she once said.

She was funny. Very, very funny.

Actress Lesley Abrams has long embraced Parker's writing and reputation, and she can't stand the idea of the writer not getting her due in the future.

"The loss of her scares me," said Abrams, who wrote and will star in "Dorothy Parker's Last Call," the first production of the new Winding Road Theater Ensemble.

"To think of a world without that kind of clever, clean, astute observations. . . .

"Where are we as a society if we can't look at ourselves with that kind of penetrating, skewering, surgically perfect wit? . . . She had a beautiful way of looking at relationships and the differences between men and women, and really being able to nail it."

Parker wrote poetry, screenplays and was one of the original writers in The New Yorker magazine. She penned book reviews ("This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly," she said about Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged." "It should be thrown with great force.") and theater reviews (She wrote about Katharine Hepburn that "she ran the gamut of emotions from A to B").

She survived an unhappy childhood, was married three times — twice to the same man — and tried suicide several times.

"I love this idea of this woman who was so witty and clever, and had such a grasp of irony, and had this very, very sad life," said Abrams about Parker.

"As suicidal as she was, her output was so charming. She said, 'I prefer to think of myself as a wit, because wit has truth in it.' Her work is clever and true, and I was drawn to that."

Abrams, an accomplished actress and comedian, immersed herself in Parker's writings and biographies about her. And in the process, she discovered little-known facts about Parker.

"I was in Chicago for business and took a couple of days and went through the microfiche files of her writings and all the magazine articles by her," recalled Abrams.

"I came across this little piece of information that all rights to works by her were owned by the NAACP, and it didn't connect with anything I knew about her. . . . If anyone knows anything about Dorothy Parker, they probably didn't know she had an affinity for the disenfranchised."

Winding Road Theater was founded by Abrams, Terry Erbe, Glen Coffman, who is directing this production, and Toni Press-Coffman.

"We've worked for various other companies in the past," said Abrams about why they launched a theater company. "We wanted a little more control over the pieces we would be involved with."

Winding Road is planning two productions this season — "Dorothy Parker" and Terrence McNally's "Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune," slated for the second half of the season.

If you go

"Dorothy Parker's Last Call"

• Presented by: Winding Road Theater Ensemble.

• Written and performed by: Lesley Abrams.

• Director: Glen Coffman.

• When: Previews 7:30 p.m. Thursday; opens 7:30 p.m. next Friday. Regular performances are 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays through Oct. 31. No performance Oct. 23.

• Where: Cabaret Theatre at the Temple of Music & Art, 330 S. Scott Ave.

• Tickets: $15, with discounts available.

• Reservations/information: 749-3800.

• Running time: 70 minutes, with no intermission.