The Wit and Wisdom: PRESS ARCHIVES

Performer of the Week: Robin Strasser (SOD 12/13/05)

Robin Strasser once told Digest, "I'm going to toot my own horn here, but I'm really adept at turning at a second from all 'Yes, yes,' light-hearted to 'I could stick a knife right in her back I'm so angry.'" When David stood Dorian up at the altar, Strasser proved that she could put her money where her mouth is.

The scenes in Dorian's dressing room between the bride and groom not-to-be were heart-wrenching. Dorian could not understand how David, her partner and best friend, a man who accepted her -- no, LOVED her -- for all her faults, had looked her in the eye in front of everyone and said that he did not want to be her partner anymore. Strasser didn't need a lot of words to show how that painful rejection had turned the powerful Dorian Lord into a helpless little girl. Fighting off tears, in a meek, vulnerable voice, she simply asked, "Why are you doing this? What have I done?"

But we were not left to cry with Dorian for long. When David went to La Boulaie to explain that he stood her up to hide the fact that he is a murderer, Strasser conjured up the fiery Dorian from the past and turned that hurt over being betrayed into rage about being humiliated.

"You are a murderer!" she screamed hysterically, her lip quivering. "You are! You have murdered the respect that people used to have for me! You have humiliated me beyond belief!"

Since returning to OLTL in 2003, Strasser has proven that her kinder, gentler Dorian can go toe-to-toe with Tuc Watkins's (David) witty humor. But we couldn't be happier to see that OLTL is finally giving her the opportunity to show the depths to which she can take this complex character.