Marie Antoinette - Review

Marie Antoinette 

By David Adjmi

Directed by Rachel Baring

Performed by Elisa Armstrong, Jessica Tanner, Eleanor Howlett, Heath Ivey-Law, Gabriel Partington and Conor Gallacher

Lighting Design by John Collopy

Set and Costume Design by Eloise Kent

Sound by Linton Wilkinson

Composition by Claire Ewing

West Wing Studio 2 – Northcote Town Hall

5 – 15 July 2018

Beautifully staged with design by Eloise Kent, competently directed by Rachel Baring and peopled with characters amalgamated by skilled actors Marie Antoinetteis a fascinating and insightful work.  Although a highly stylized it does bring us closer to the sense of Marie Antoinette as a very real person.

The space – West Wing Studio 2 - at the Northcote Town Hall is a great little black box with just the right kind of flexibility.  However there are times when a number of actors over project - vocalizing way too much gusto for the size of the area and number of audience. Over projection can be due to performers thinking that they are not getting the appropriate message across or perhaps due to feeling the audience is not really listening to them.

Some of the production values are excellent for example the costumes and wigs designed by Eloise Kent.  Movement from scene to scene is dealt with competently and smoothly.   And in the early scene Eleanor Howlett brings a lively fresh joyful sense of play on stage with her.

All cast members are trained and experienced and do a great job.  However,

subtlety and variation are missing as the evening progresses..  The work seems to be pitched at the same level and tempo from about midway through.  For me, this suggests, way to little rehearsal time.  There is no evidence that the extremes of the work have been explored in rehearsal.   This production needs to do more to convey the dramatic life and death concerns of the text by American playwright David Adjmi.  Strangely the acting becomes flat and neutral - not what could be expected from a work that was produced by Steppenwolf in New York.

Marie Antoinette requires a more dynamic approach to fully succeed and ‘pack the punch’ it truly could.

Now-days too much Theatre is under- rehearsed.  Even with the flag-ship companies we, too often, arrive at opening nights where works are precariously balanced between not being ready and almost being ready.   As a reviewer I often feel required to sense the potential for growth and to write of what can and probably will be realized in future performances.  With a season as short as the one set for Marie Antoinettethere is really not enough time for all actors to achieve their personal best by the last performance if the rehearsal period is inadequate.

(I saw the last performance.)

I would love to see this work restaged after a really gutsy period of work-shopping the imbedded ideas.  Certainly a troupe of performers who are dedicated to their craft and have a future.

Suzanne Sandow

(For Stage Whispers)