The Greatest Tragic Actress
“The best way to survive in this business is to adore every play you’re in! “
Charles
“…It must be confessed that silence is the most flattering applause an actor can receive.”
Sarah Siddons
April de Angelis’s plays have explored early English actresses before with her work Playhouse Creatures about the contemporaries of Nell Gwyn but in The Divine Mrs S she looks at the first female tragedian Mrs Sarah Siddons (Rachael Stirling). Audiences turned up ready to cry and faint with white handkerchiefs, smelling salts and hartshorn. Her depiction of Lady Macbeth had been known to stop the production there, such was her nervous exertion and the mirroring, hysterical response of the audience.
We see her here pursued by the artist Thomas Lawrence (Gareth Snook) and in the National Gallery we have Thomas Gainsborough’s famously beautiful portrait of her (see below). The Divine Mrs S opens with the rear view of the famous stage at Drury Lane; Lez Brotherston’s divinely detailed set is a feast of canvas backed flats and ropes, frames, pulleys and the swagged main curtain.
This theatre is managed by Siddons’s younger brother Philip Kemble (Dominic Rowan) and we get an early example of his declaiming style of acting. As an amateur critic appreciates later, to be said for it is that we can hear every word! But his movement and expression is as wooden and motionless as the floorboards. It wasn’t just Kemble’s style, this exaggeration was the acting genre for at least another 75 years. Kemble’s sister is limited to parts where she is an unfaithful wife, or a courtesan or another woman fallen on hard times. She puts so much of herself into these parts that she is inclined to swoon and has to be carried to the couch behind the scenes.
We meet her contemporaries her admirer and maid Patti (Anushka Chakravarti), the censor’s wife, the redoubtable Mrs Larpent (Sadie Shimmin) in a magnificently feathered black hat, a theatre fan Mrs Larpent’s daughter Clara (Eva Feiler), Boaden the critic (Gareth Snook) and assorted actors.
There are numerous clever and humorous quips in Miss de Angelis’s script and the play moves at an exciting pace. It is a treat for theatregoers with some of the asides tickling current theatre topics. There is social and political commentary as we are reminded that until the Married Women’s Property Act of 1882, married women had no control over their income or property. Despite her popularity Siddons is under the dramatic choice control of her brother. She does get to play Hamlet on tour and her most celebrated role is Lady Macbeth.
Clara’s side story shows how women could be badly treated, their children taken away and jailed in institutions for the insane by brutal husbands. Siddons loses two of her very young daughters one in infancy, another in childhood, and three more children do not outlive her out of seven.
The star here is Diana Rigg’s daughter Rachael Stirling as Siddons, as charming and beautiful as her late mother for whom this part fits like the proverbial glove. Her vocal range has depth and interest contrasting with her stage brother’s intentionally plodding acting. This is a magnificent production with Anna Mackmin’s sure footed direction, Mark Henderson’s candle lit lighting, Max Pappenheim’s composition and sound and the gorgeous set and costumes.
Very well done Hampstead! Keep up the great work!
Production Notes
The Divine Mrs S
Written by April de Angelis
Directed by Anna Mackmin
Cast
Starring:
Rachael Stirling
Dominic Rowan
Gareth Snook
Anushka Chakravarti
Eva Feiler
Sadie Shimmin
Creatives
Director: Anna Mackmin
Designer: Lez Brotherston
Lighting Designer: Mark Henderson
Composer and Sound
Designer: Max Pappenheim
Fights: Maisie Carter
Information
Running Time: Two hours 20 minutes with an interval
Booking to 27th April 2024
Theatre:
Hampstead Theatre
Eton Avenue
Swiss Cottage
Tube: Swiss Cottage
Reviewed
by Lizzie Loveridge at
Hampstead Theatre Upstairs
on 28th March 2024