★★

“Lincoln is at her best when she portrays characters from her past”

Versatile actress Mary Lincoln writes and performs this hour long one person show, directed by Samuel Ripman. The story is set in Marcella’s loft – a deathtrap of a space with low headbanging beams and dodgy electrics, strewn with a lifetime of boxes and miscellanea (Production Designer Mark Tildesley). Marcella’s quandary is that she is about to put into the loft eight identical items bought as redundant Christmas presents but feels in the spirit of decluttering that she should throw out eight existing items. This leads her down memory lane and she regales us with a series of anecdotes as she selects the items for recycling – mostly old costumes collected in a lifetime as a theatrical chorus girl. Of course, the simplest thing would be to have thrown out the eight items of no use whatsoever and hung on to these precious items with their history and their memories. But hey-ho.

Marcella is a sprightly lady in her sixties dressed appropriately for chores in black dungarees and a headscarf (Costume Designer Suzanne Bell). Right from the outset, she steps forward to speak to the audience. Is this Mary Lincoln the actor-writer stepping out of character and speaking as herself or Marcella the character? Are we invited into Marcella’s loft to be part of the drama or is this a sort of stand-up comedy routine? I am confused.

Marcella clambers around the space. Some of the movement is clumsy, which is understandable as this is a cluttered roof space after all. But showing the movement from ground floor into loft, and vice versa feels uncomfortable. And the costume rail is positioned so far upstage that Marcella disappears from view when she goes behind it which is unfortunate. Her constant rattling of the clothes hangers is also an irritation.

Some of the costumes come with their own half-remembered showtunes that we hear Marcella humming inside her head. A lovely idea, but with the lo-fi sound recording and whispery rendition the sound comes out as more underwhelming than ghostly. And in case we don’t understand what is happening here, a coloured spotlight onto the clothing rail gives us a visual clue. (Lighting/Sound Designer Stuart Glover).

I’m sorry to say that nothing here is very interesting. An acting out of the poem Megan Marries Herself whilst Marcella parades around in a hideous veil that she has long ago bought from a charity shop (why?) loses direction. The crucial central story of the green coat has Marcella dressing herself in plastic wrapping, and despite the moving nature of the tale’s poignant ending the rendition is too long and Marcella’s sweeping movements of the plastic covering too distracting to be fully effective.

To give the actress credit though, this is Mary’s magnificently remembered monologue, maintained with moments of melodrama. Lincoln is at her best when she portrays characters from her past; playing her younger self playing St Joan is very funny, the supportive Scottish drama teacher is endearing, and best of all is her portrayal of Marcella’s Italian Catholic matriarch. Perhaps these elements of the play could be extended further – allow the actress to act – and reduce the breaking of the fourth wall.

A programme note explains the genesis of the work and the family nature of the piece. Perhaps, though, this actor and director are too close to the stories the play contains and it needs an outside interpreter to maximise the work’s dramatic potential. Just a thought.

JOYCE DIDONATO SINGS BERLIOZ at the Royal Festival Hall

★★★★

“on to the stage walked Joyce DiDonato in a sheath of gold, her signature hair magnificent and a glittering of jewels – a true Egyptian Queen Cleopatra”

The opening concert of the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Autumn/Winter Season was entitled Joyce DiDonato Sings Berlioz, which might have been slightly misleading, if you had not read the music to be performed, as the mezzo-soprano performed in just one of the three pieces played tonight.

The evening opened with Samuel Barber’s Medea’s Dance of Vengeance (1955). This saw the large orchestra on stage playing rather brilliantly this tense and violent single movement. The piece opens with a sparse xylophone solo, joined by the harp through to violin and echoed by flute and oboe. The orchestra relish playing with full strength capturing the ominous drama of Medea as she moves onwards to her ultimate goal. The music continues to change tempos with each section of the orchestra throwing the themes between instruments. There is a strong piano staccato passage that repeats relentlessly and transforms as other instruments pick it up in different rhythms. It was a thrilling opening to the evening, with every instrument pulsating this dramatic work. Medea’s Dance of Vengeance is extracted from what had been Barber’s score for a full-length ballet choreographed by Martha Graham, unleashed with orchestra and dancer, that would have been a sight to behold.

Up next was another truly dramatic piece, Hector Berlioz’s The Death of Cleopatra (1829). And here on to the stage walked Joyce DiDonato in a sheath of gold, her signature hair magnificent and a glittering of jewels – a true Egyptian Queen Cleopatra. In just one act, The Death of Cleopatra has the depth and drama of a full opera with one solo performer and orchestra. As the orchestra played the poetical extended opening DiDonato’s strength and character is clear from her stance as to where she is going to take her Cleopatra. Her mezzo-soprano operatic tone is rich and powerful as she sings above the orchestra with a great feel for the French dramatic vocal style in the recitatives and arias, particularly when singing to her ancestors in the tomb as she prepares for death. In the final movement a strong plucking starts on the double bass (six of them), and on through the strings building the tension as the orchestra breaths with DiDonato, through to the piccolos slithering here as “the vile reptile” arriving to wrap around Cleopatra’s wrist and bite. Her final despairing utterances are joined by the double basses, in what can only be described as the heart beating and slowing. Picking up with the strings momentarily in a final quivering beat before stopping – silence. Death. Conductor, Edward Gardner, clearly relishes Berlioz’s twists and turns and creates an increasing sense of entombment through to the deathly silence. A strong debut for Joyce DiDonato with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Berlioz was just 26 when he wrote The Death of Cleopatra and Beethoven had been dead for only 2 years.

Which takes us neatly to Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 in E flat major (Eroica) 1803-5, the final piece in tonight’s programme. This was Beethoven’s great breakthrough symphony, and music was never the same again. The stuff of symphonic legend, the symphony was originally written to celebrate the life of Napoleon Bonaparte. But when Napoleon showed imperial ambitions, Beethoven defaced the original dedication (to Bonaparte) in protest – and his musical revolution began with this glorious work. Once again Edward Gardner brings excitement and passion from the orchestra. The assured performance right from the first two bracing E-flat major chords to the dynamics in the first movement are intelligently paced. There is no mistaking one is hearing piano rather than pianissimo, or a forte instead of fortissimo. The second movement, Marcia Funebre, is a funeral march and always deeply moving. The Scherzo is well played, and the famous trio hunting-horn is beautiful. And then you trust Beethoven to take you forward to the fourth movement with yet more new themes. The final movement, Allegro Molto (very fast), does not quite pick up the tempo needed until towards the very end, when the symphony’s coda with horns at full throttle is thrilling.

Category Archives: Reviews

MARCELLA’S MINUTE TO MIDNIGHT

★★

Jack Studio Theatre

MARCELLA’S MINUTE TO MIDNIGHT at the Jack Studio Theatre

★★

“Lincoln is at her best when she portrays characters from her past”

MARCELLA’S MINUTE TO MIDNIGHT at the Jack Studio Theatre

Reviewed on 26th September 2024

by Phillip Money

Photography by Rodney Smith

Previously reviewed at this venue:

DEPTFORD BABY | ★★★ | July 2024

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING | ★★★ | August 2022

RICHARD II | ★★★★★ | February 2022

HOLST: THE MUSIC IN THE SPHERES | ★★★★★ | January 2022

PAYNE: THE STARS ARE FIRE | ★★★ | January 2022

TRESTLE | ★★★ | June 2021

MARCELLA’S MINUTE TO MIDNIGHT

MARCELLA’S MINUTE TO MIDNIGHT

Click here to see our Recommended Shows page

JOYCE DIDONATO SINGS BERLIOZ

★★★★

Royal Festival Hall

JOYCE DIDONATO SINGS BERLIOZ at the Royal Festival Hall

★★★★

“on to the stage walked Joyce DiDonato in a sheath of gold, her signature hair magnificent and a glittering of jewels – a true Egyptian Queen Cleopatra”