Ovation Recommended “Playwright Gail Louw’s masterpiece drama Blonde Poison has its American premiere at Beverly Hills Theatre 40. I was held captive for the entire ninety minutes. The story, based on the true story of Stella Goldschlag during the Holocaust, stars Salome Jens, who gives a brilliant performance under the superb direction of renowned director, Jules Aaron. Take such fine writing, exquisite acting with fine direction and you have a play that is not to be missed. This triumvirate created a masterpiece in this compelling drama”. Audrey Linden – LA Examiner
Pick of the Week and Top Ten http://stageraw.com/2015/01/15/blonde-poison/ “Under Jules Aaron’s direction, Jens manages to incarnate a monster while making her inescapably human: vain, terrorized, indomitable despite intolerable peril….Her (Jens) consummate skill in spinning a yarn sustains a transfixing campfire intimacy that mesmerizes with both horror and a sense of inescapable degradation. No salvation offered here, only the stubbornness born of ineradicable trauma”. Myron Meisel – Stage Raw
WOW! http://www.stagescenela.com/2015/01/blonde-poison/ “Salome Jens gives an absolutely riveting performance . . . Blonde Poison The Play chooses to reveal the many shadings of what might otherwise seem to be a black-and-white story of evil incarnate. Louw’s award-winning solo piece does so by allowing us to get to know Stella the woman before giving us Stella the monster . . . . One of the reasons Louw’s play works so well is that it sees no need to invent an invisible conversation partner for Stella’s stroll down memory lane. Fully-staged production offered by Theatre 40’s crackerjack design team, one made even more noteworthy by the imaginative, nuanced direction of Jules Aaron and the superlative work of Salome Jens . . . Jens gives us all of Stella’s fire and ice and everything in between. It’s rare that a solo performance stands out as a piece of dramatic theater that could just as easily be a full-fledged multi-character play, mini-series or film.” Steven Stanley - Stage Scene LA
http://artsinla.com/Theater_Reviews.html “It’s a harrowing tale, told and acted with both passion and restraint. .. Louw is a skillful writer, and Jens acts the role with such profound conviction that we never question her reality. Her attempts at understanding and rationalizing her horrendous past actions seem both credible and moving. Her guilt may be profound, but so is her suffering. Director Jules Aaron frames the action with tact and sensitivity, and a finely invisible hand”. Neil Weaver - Arts in LA
http://itsnotaboutme.tv/news/theatre-blonde-poison/ "I can’t tell you how much I admired everything about this performance. It was a privilege to see such an accomplished actress….. I was also impressed with Jeff G. Rack’s set. … But whether or not you are interested in this tragic true story, if you’re a fan of the theaterat all, you have got to be impressed with Salome Jens’ performance. Besides that it’swonderful, it’s amazing thatanyone, let alone a woman of her age, could not only learn this difficult script, but perform it multiple times a month". Karen Salkin- It’s not about me
“Salome Jens gives an absolutely riveting performance as Stella Goldschlag, the Berliner whose collaboration with the Gestapo sent thousands of her fellow German Jews to the death camps, in the American Premiere of Gail Louw’s Blonde Poison, now playing at Beverly Hills’ Theatre 40”. Steven Stanley – StageSceneLA
“It’s a harrowing tale, told and acted with both passion and restraint. The solo drama is essentially an artificial format: a single woman talking to herself at length about her past sorrow and malefactions. But Louw is a skillful writer, and Jens acts the role with such profound conviction that we never question her reality. Her attempts at understanding and rationalizing her horrendous past actions seem both credible and moving. Her guilt may be profound, but so is her suffering”. Neal Weaver – ArtsInLA
