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)

Review - Hildegard/Knef

Hildegard/

Knef

Created and Performed by April Albert

Directed by Rachel Baring

Lighting/Set Design by Rob Sowinski

Projection Design by Matto Lucas

Sound Design by Cat Tyson Hughes

Dramaturgy by Daniel Rice

Costume Consultant – Rebecca Dunn

Produced by Danny Delahunty

Pianist – Mark Hunter

Northcote Town Hall – 16 to 26 September

Affecting, lyrical and entertaining Hildegard/Knef is a enlightening musical Theatre/cabaret piece that is very transportable and should have quite an extended life as a touring piece.  It is reminiscent of Drowning in Veronica Lake staring Alex Ellis, also a one-woman piece about a movie star - that has recently been touring and I caught in Kyneton earlier this year.  Both works touch on the very human vulnerability behind the stylish public lives of their subjects.

Photo of April Albert by Greta Costello

Hildegard Knef was born in 1925 and lived an tumultuous young life through the war in Germany.  She began acting at 14, was an actress, singer and writer, was married three times and had one daughter, suffered from breast cancer, and died of a lung infection at 76.   One gets the sense that she has experienced darkness, passion and plummeted to troubling emotional depths that informed her intense impassioned sultry performances.  Her voice was husky and deep and her You Tube clips are peculiarly fascinating to watch.

April Albert confidently and adeptly brings this damaged femme fatal to life before our eyes.  And doubtless she will reach past the footlights to touch her audience throughout the run, and in many more incarnations of this accomplished work, much of which is in German.  The whole is tightly choreographed and cleanly realized through direction by Rachel Baring.

Rob Sowinski has created a simple and delightfully lit set that is beguilingly ambiguous and economical.  Less is more and props are used economically to significant effect.

Pianist Mark Hunter who is strangely tucked away from view supports Albert impeccably and could, perhaps, offer another dimension if actually featured. 

As Albert relaxes and releases more through each performance, and channels more of the gusty character of Hildegard Knef, this work is set to stun audiences.

A strong and satisfying and intriguing work that can only grow.

Suzanne Sandow

(For Stage Whispers)