Performer of the Week
Soap Opera Digest
February 1, 2011
When uninvited Marty, armed with the truth about Natalie's baby, interrupted "Jolie's" last-minute New Year's nups, Susan Haskell expressed the polarities of her troubled alter with controlled nuance that demonstrated Marty's slow and desperate unraveling.
Full of liquid courage from a martinie at Capricorn, embittered Marty's secret plot to bust Natalie at the alter got underway, much to Nat's horror. Marty expertly manipulated her roles as friend, former lover and foe to the stunned guests. She tiptoed around John with innocent smiles and played nice with Jessica, who was concerned that Marty must have something important to say. Haskell's deliberate affectations, at times rigid and emotionless, injected Marty's cool demeanor with an extra shot of icy, revenge-fueled contempt toward Natalie. Knowing she had the upper hand, Marty smirked with delight as she watched Nat panic and frantically shoo her away, to no avail..
When Brody confronted Marty and urged her to leave, she was smug and spiteful. "You think John's the father. Oh, because that's what the test said, right?" she scoffed and tore away from his grasp. Then, Jess went into labor, foiling Marty's plan and putting Nat on the defensive.
Left alone at the courthouse with her rival, Marty's calm turned to outrage and she unleashed on Nat with fierce anger. The battling women finally had it out with a screaming (and shoving) match. Haskell's portrayal, replete with a cold, dead stare, lent a baleful undertone to Marty's verbal assault -- an indication of her increasing instability."Your actions have consequences, so deal with them!" she spat at Nat, her lips curled up in a sinister snarl. "You gonna kill me? That's the only thing that's gonna stop me!" she screamed, just as Nat pushed her into a wall and she fell unconscious....
Haskell's subtlety is often her strength. Marty's unnerving complexity was certainly on full display, and as she slowly came unhinged, Haskell's performance was as tight as a drum.