05/22/2026
This is one of the quickest turn arounds for an article I've seen. Yesterday we posted about being interviewed by Michael Scott Montgomery for Out NW magazine, well, the article just got posted online:
https://outnw.com/featured/
[some people may have a hard time getting the article which right now is on the front page of the OUTNW magazine.
Here you go:
When audiences enter Arbus & West, they are stepping into far more than a historical drama. They are witnessing an imagined collision between two women who transformed the way America understood fame, femininity, and identity.
Originally written by acclaimed Australian playwright Stephen Sewell and first staged in 2019, Arbus & West imagines a real-life 1964 meeting between Hollywood icon Mae West and photographer Diane Arbus during a portrait session inside West’s Los Angeles apartment.
Now, triangle productions! brings the play to American audiences for the very first time.
During a recent conversation about the production, the cast and creative team reflected on why this encounter between Mae West and Diane Arbus still feels urgent today.
Director Donnie — who described himself as deeply drawn to biographies, history, and stories about strong women — explained that Mae West fascinated him not simply because of her fame, but because of the power she created for herself during a time when women were rarely allowed to hold cultural authority.
“During the twenties and thirties, women were not supposed to be in power,” he explained. “But Mae was powerful. A lot of people don’t realize what she accomplished. She created herself.”
That idea of self-creation sits at the center of the play.
Mae West is portrayed as a woman who carefully constructed every aspect of her public image — from her famous platinum hair to her glamorous costumes and unmistakable voice. According to the cast, she never stopped performing. Even late in life, she remained committed to the image she had built decades earlier.
“She really had a brand,” the team observed during the interview. “When Mae West walked into a room, everyone knew who she was.”
In contrast stands Diane Arbus, the groundbreaking photographer whose work sought to expose what existed beneath performance and illusion. Actress Tasha Danner— who portrays Arbus — described her character as intensely driven, emotionally restless, and obsessed with discovering hidden truths.
“She wanted rawness,” Danner explained. “She wanted the truth so badly that sometimes she crossed lines to get it.”
The tension between those opposing worldviews drives the play.
Mae West understands survival through image control. Diane Arbus believes authenticity only exists when the mask slips away.
Throughout the production, the two women move through moments of admiration, humor, hostility, vulnerability, and philosophical conflict. The actors described the relationship almost like “an old married couple” — two people simultaneously fascinated and irritated by one another.
Their conversations touch on feminism, aging, s*xuality, celebrity culture, artistic ambition, and women’s independence.
The cast emphasized that one of the most compelling aspects of the play is how differently Mae West and Diane Arbus understand feminism.
Arbus represents a younger generation emerging from the women’s liberation movement of the 1960s, while West embodies an earlier form of female independence — one built not through activism, but through personal reinvention and business control.
“She may not have called herself a feminist,” actress Emily Sahler explained about Mae West, “but she lived a feminist life.”
The production also explores the emotional cost of maintaining an illusion.
The actors spoke extensively about how Mae West concealed visible signs of aging throughout her life — carefully hiding her neck, arms, and hands in public appearances. Yet Diane Arbus’s photographs forced those hidden realities into view.
For the creative team, that conflict reflects a larger truth about all people.
“We all have hidden rooms,” Donnie said during the interview, referring to a symbolic secret within the play. “We all have parts of ourselves we don’t want exposed.”
That idea becomes central to Sewell’s script.
While Arbus & West is rooted in history, the play ultimately becomes something more universal: an exploration of identity itself.
Who are we when no one is watching?
How much of ourselves do we construct for others?
And what happens when someone insists on seeing past the performance?
The production also introduces Ruby, a fictional assistant and dresser to Mae West. Ruby serves as protector, observer, and emotional bridge between the two women. Through her perspective, audiences witness both the glamour surrounding Mae West and the exhaustion required to maintain it.
Actress Carolina Selva described Ruby as someone caught between loyalty and independence — a woman pulled constantly into the orbit of celebrity while trying to preserve her own identity.
Critics originally praised Arbus & West for its intimacy and wit, qualities that surprised audiences familiar with Stephen Sewell’s more overtly political plays such as The Blind Giant Is Dancing and Myth, Propaganda and Disaster in N**i Germany and Contemporary America.
Yet despite its smaller scale, the production confronts enormous questions.
What is truth? What is performance? Can celebrity ever coexist with authenticity?
And who has the power to define a woman’s image?
For Triangle Productions, bringing Arbus & West to American audiences feels especially timely in a world increasingly shaped by curated identities, branding, social media performance, and public image management.
Long before Instagram filters and celebrity influencers, Mae West understood how to control perception. Diane Arbus, meanwhile, devoted her life to exposing what people attempted to hide.
Together, their imagined meeting creates a theatrical confrontation that feels startlingly modern.
Arbus & West runs June 4 through June 20 at triangle productions!. Questions: call us 503-239-5919 or email: [email protected]
