Emilie's Voltaire, a Love Story by Arthur Giron. Directed, designed and performed by Kenneth MacLeod and Kate Stones. Directorial Consultant: Angela Chaplin. Presented by The Red Room Theatre.
Emilie's Voltaire, a Love Story is an extremely cerebral work about two of History's great intellects. It is a two-hander that covers the time that Voltaire and Emilie du Chatelet were lovers, sparing partners and confidants, and is staged almost entirely in domestic environments.
This tame, respectable and well-supported production is engaging and absorbing. It is presented by competent and talented actors with lovely clear voices and the capacity to make perfect sense of the demanding writing. However to make the transition from telling to showing an audience, requires more time, attention and directorial work. Some cutting of the text and an intense rehearsal period would lift it from being excellent amateur/fringe work to the elucidating, penetrating, passionate sensual journey as promised by the promotional material.
The set, though bright and effective, constitutes a mix of conventions. It is partly naturalistic – partly representational. It would be wonderful for this small company to be able to source and afford a skilled set designer to make clear visual statements.
Kate Stones’ Emilie is engaging and charming. She could easily portray the required wildness, volatility and earthiness with more rehearsal and the support of more sensual and unconventional costuming. As it is, she is dressed in a manner indicative of the period in costumes that are obviously beautifully and painstakingly constructed, but the fabrics used are too modern and restricting to comprehensively serve the actor or character – unlike the jacket and velvet hat worn by Voltaire.
Kenneth MacLeod looks like Voltaire and plays him as a witty, lustful and, at times, controlling cunning fop. However with this strong and convincing presence, it would be entrancing to see a little less measure – so highs, lows and vulnerabilities could be more pointedly conveyed and thence responded to with a greater sense of spontaneity by Stones' Emilie.
Missing is the sharp invective involved in the dynamic power play of an overwhelming passion that is both physical and psychological. Without this, the talk of feminism becomes lip service – leaving a very subtle but bitter hint of misogyny.
To express the transitioning emotional extremes in this wild Tango (or almost the sadomasochistic Apache) of a relationship, physical and vocal fluidity are required. This production, with its strong dedicated performers, needs enthusiastic physicalisation of body language, variation in vocal tempo, more refined and defined production values, and to be staged in an intimate venue with a competent stagehand "to really take off."
The essence of really good theatre is there. What is required now, is more intensive work in rehearsal and more time with a demanding perceptive director to present a visceral expression of the electric passion sparked by the meeting of minds.
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