At the intersection of family and race

Douglas Sirk's popular 1959 movie version of Fannie Hurst's "Imitation of Life" has fascinated theater artist Susan Finque for years. She did a dramatic reading of it with the Group Theater here, then created a cabaret version when she went to Yale, where she received her Master of Fine Arts in directing last year.

At Yale she met a writer, Marcus Gardley, whose mother also had been deeply affected by the movie, which deals with a biracial girl who neglects her black mother and passes for white. Together Finque, who is white, and Gardley, who is African American, created "(L)imitations of Life," a backstage musical about actors going through identity crises as they work on the latest revival of Hurst's story.

"It's pretty fertile material," said Finque, a former Seattleite who is back in town to direct the world premiere of the play at Empty Space. "The book was pretty deeply into the topic of race. ... The movie was a very brave thing to do in 1959. I'm sort of propelled by why Sirk did what he did."

Although Lana Turner is the movie's star, playing an actress whose strong ties to the theater recall "All About Eve," Finque points out that "on the other side of the screen there's this real tragedy," played out by Juanita Moore (a black maid) and Susan Kohner (her tortured daughter). Moore and Kohner received the film's only Oscar nominations.

Still, Finque notes, a mid-1930s movie version, starring Claudette Colbert and written by Preston Sturges, was less glamorous and more tied to the working-class roots of Hurst's novel. It also featured a real mixed-race girl, Fredi Washington, in the role later played by Kohner, who is white.

Elements of the earlier movie as well as Hurst's novel do pop up in "(L)imitations," which adds songs by Rich Gray to the story. Similar to the fantasy numbers in "Chicago," they're designed to explore the psychology of actors who want roles other than the ones they've been assigned.

The style of the play also owes a debt to the late Charles Ludlam's Ridiculous Theatrical Company, known for dissecting popular works in a flamboyant manner.

Coincidentally, Universal's Franchise Collection has just released a DVD that includes the 1934 and 1959 movies. But Finque thinks it's unnecessary to do any homework before seeing her treatment. The play should stand on its own.

So should her next project: an adaptation of Shakespeare's "The Comedy of Errors," which she's preparing for the Milwaukee Shakespeare Theatre (she now lives in Evansville, Wis., where she and her partner run a coffee shop). She hinted that it will have the Finque stamp.

"I've been crossing race and crossing genders since I was a little girl," she said. "With ("Comedy of Errors"), I get two sets of twins — something that's compelling to me."

John Hartl: johnhartl@yahoo.com