★★

“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.

THE CHANGELING at Southwark Playhouse

★★★½

“a slick, stylish, and refreshing take on a Renaissance play”

Tinny Italian pop music, a mini-fridge full of champagne, and, in the centre of the stage, a long wooden boardroom table surrounded by high-backed chairs. ‘The Changeling’, Middleton and Rowley’s 17th-century play, adapted and directed by Ricky Dukes, takes place entirely in this boardroom (designed by Sorcha Corcoran), with the cast in mid-century dress (excellently created by Alice Neale). The play follows Beatrice-Joanna (Colette O’Rourke), who, betrothed to a man she does not love, seeks to murder her fiancée. When Beatrice enlists the help of her servant De Flores (Jamie O’Neill), who is as obsessed with her as she is disgusted by him, both are drawn into a complex current of desire and murder.

Originally featuring a parallel plot set in a madhouse, this production bravely subsumes the comedic subplot into the tragic main plot but retains a semblance of the madhouse setting for the second act. While it scraps their storyline, the production also retains the madhouse inmates, here recast as The Patients, the house band who interrupt the tragic proceedings to croon wedding-singer style, bounce mega-balloons around the audience, and bathe the stage in disco lighting.

The production is a slick, stylish, and refreshing take on a Renaissance play. The staging is often particularly impressive, and manages to do a lot with very little, thanks in large part to Stuart Glover’s stunning and, at times, very complex lighting design. Even though the boardroom table never moves, we get everything from catacombs to fire. One particularly impressive scene sees De Flores and Alonzo (Alex Bird) descending into the castle vaults, lit cleverly by headlamps worn by the rest of the cast to create the illusion of tunnels.

The influence of Daniel Fish’s dark staging of ‘Oklahoma!’ is evident, with Jamie O’Neill, who is excellent, bringing a wounded and vulnerable desperation to De Flores’ sinister perversity, which very nearly gleans our sympathy. Refusing to cast De Flores as purely revolting and imagining him instead as someone who Beatrice might mutually desire works very well.

“stylish and unflaggingly entertaining”

It would be possible for the cast to lean even further into this fruitful dynamic, were they given a more intimate space. Instead, the interruptions of The Madhouse, though occasionally well-placed, are frequently distracting. All eleven cast members are on-stage almost constantly, navigating around the boardroom table which, while stylish looking, never feels necessary and is instead mostly a hindrance. Taking up almost all available space, it means that most scenes take place with actors entirely separated by a large piece of wood. This dampens some of the sinister sensuality and is a shame in a play that is essentially about desiring bodies.

The best parts of this play come, instead, when the production leans into sparser staging, and leverages the uncanniness of the space. One moment, where De Flores and Beatrice kneel together on the table in the centre of the chaos created, is particularly powerful.

Frequently, however, the play expends too much energy in the wrong places, and, as it reaches its tragic climax, becomes almost claustrophobic. By the end, the audience must contend not only with the table, but also with eleven cast members, fake blood, confetti, and two types of balloon.

Paradoxically, less to do would give the excellent cast more to work with. However, despite the lack of breathing room, this is a stylish and unflaggingly entertaining production. The ‘excessive’ aspects also undoubtedly most engage the audience, and Lazarus is, after all, a company designed to do exactly this.

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:

MARCELLA’S MINUTE TO MIDNIGHT

MARCELLA’S MINUTE TO MIDNIGHT

THE CHANGELING at Southwark Playhouse

★★★½

“a slick, stylish, and refreshing take on a Renaissance play”

“stylish and unflaggingly entertaining”

THE CHANGELING at Southwark Playhouse

Reviewed on 10th October 2023

by Anna Studsgarth

Photography by Charles Flint

Previously reviewed at Southwark Playhouse:

The Changeling

The Changeling