Sometimes bare-bones minimalism works beautifully as it does
with director Rebecca Taichman’s scaled-down (from previous productions)
version by the SoHo Rep. of David Adjmi’s “Marie Antoinette.” Despite its lack
of trappings, it is a remarkably vivid, if surreal, consideration of an
infamous life filled but also blinded by excess. The action is played out in
front of an elongated white wall with virtually no indication of the opulence
and extravagance that would normally befit a play about the notoriously shallow
and clueless Queen of France.
But there is nothing shallow about Marin Ireland’s
vibrantly neurotic performance as the doomed Marie, or the subtly clever and
witty text that embroiders her frivolous life up to her fateful death. A
tour-de-force performance by any standard, Ireland spews a constant stream of
outrageous bon mots, including the “let them eat cake,” as well as some
stunning history-based commentary on life at court but all given, sometimes
screeched, with a decidedly 21st century kick.
Her one and only gown looks like petals of a huge red rose
and her one ultra bouffant wig say are an impressive wry enough commentary on
her personality and the haute couture of the day as does the Lilliputian
stature of her husband King Louis XVI, as played with comical fits of inertia
by Steven Rattazi, a feckless ruler who knows he can’t satisfy his wife’s apparently
conflicted sexual appetite or his own for that matter. No need for scene
changes as people of the court and others including a wise and wooly lamb
(David Greenspan) who (quite a nice puppet) engages Marie in conversation. Also
engaging is Axel Fersen (Chris Stack), a handsome courtier who admires Marie
but would like to be of more service to her.
With the help of some rather pathetic projections, Marie’s
curtailed life spirals downward as the Revolution gains power and she and her
family lose power. The play begins to plod slightly from the point when she is
captured by remorseless activists to her tragic end. But up to that point, our
fascination is remains focused on Marie within the context of a surreal tableau
that may have been minimized but not misguided.
“Marie Antoinette”
SoHo Rep. 46 Walker
Street.
For tickets ($20.00 - $55.00) call (212) 352-3101
No comments:
Post a Comment