Ben
Brantley

May 19, 2015

Pauline knows that you’re looking at her. People always do. Her response is to look right back — hard — until you drop or soften your gaze. You better. Pauline is determined to make you feel more embarrassed by the fact of her existence than she is. In a bold and expert performance that makes no concessions to an actor’s vanity or an audience’s sympathy, the august British actor Simon Callow portrays — no, fully inhabits — Pauline in Emmanuel Darley’s “Tuesday’s at Tesco’s.” This bleak portrait of a woman defending her identity, which opened on Tuesday night at 59E59 as part of the Brits Off Broadway festival, is letting no one off easy. Pauline — nee Paul — has none of the ingratiating, flirtatious, life-affirming aspects that we have come to associate with lovable transgender characters for politically enlightened audiences. From the moment Mr. Callow stomps onto the stage — in a cleavage-flashing red blouse, a tasteful beige skirt and pop-out splashes of turquoise — it is clear that Pauline is an enraged and aggrieved woman. And, yes, she is emphatically a woman, though her broad shoulders, rough-hewn features and growling voice might suggest otherwise. The sole character in this 75-minute show, directed (by Simon Stokes) and designed (by Robin Don) with poetic severity, Pauline has always known what sex she is, even when she lived as a little boy in the working-class home where much of this show is set.