Muse


Muse
by Kris Lundberg
produced by Shakespeare’s Sister Company
directed by Jay Michaels
with Kris Lundberg and Greg Pragel

Elizabeth Siddal was a model for the Pre-Raphaelites. While posing as Ophelia for  John Everett Millais, she lay in a bathtub for hours on end. This led to pneumonia and then to an illness for which she was prescribed the opiate laudanum.

She later married another member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, for whom she had come to model exclusively. Addicted to laudanum, she overdosed in a fit of jealously while her husband spent the evening (quite innocently) at an event.

Kris Lundberg has taken this intriguing story and penned it into a marvelous one-act two-hander, Muse. From the moment Greg Pragel enters as Rosetti, we know this’ll be good work. The playwright herself plays Miss Siddal, and the two actors show us their relationship with abandon and subtlety, as suits the moment, and with surety. Such is their skill that we forget we’re watching the story of famous people; we’re interested in them as human beings.

The setting is nearly always Rosetti’s studio, and we meet the two, suitably, at work, he at his easel, she in her pose. These are the circumstances throughout the early part of the relationship, and their banter early in the play is a marvelous game of testing as each probes to see if the other is to taste. We watch as the relationship intensifies and the two develop a history.

From time to time, between scenes, Rosetti addresses us. The technique, although embedded in the otherwise realistic play, seems natural, not intrusive.

Jay Michaels directs the whole thing allegretto, with a marvelous sense of gesture and image. Half mad with grief for her stillborn child, Liz rushes on stage with her red/gold hair streaming behind her, the picture of a madwoman.

Michaels makes a bold choice at a point when our pair, now married, have a heated argument. They shout at the same time, trying to top each other, so that we can’t understand what either is saying. It’s marvelous for several moments. Michaels moves beyond realism to expressionism. He knows that the fact of unpenned anger is more important than the content of the argument. The problem is that it goes on too long, after it’s had its emotional effect. It’s inspired but excessive.

Jessa-Raye Court’s costumes are resplendent. Some designs are based on the clothes Miss Siddal wore while posing, that can be seen in the paintings. The set is simple and handsome, bothering with no more than it needs to show.

We’ll be keeping an eye on Shakespeare’s Sister.

Steve Capra
August 2014

Popular posts from this blog

Anouilh's Antigone

There is a moment in Fusion Theatre’s production of Jean Anouilh’s Antigone (at Theatre Row’s Studio Theatre) when Creon says to Antigone “Don’t annihilate me with those eyes.” And indeed, Antigone’s unrelenting stare does seem to be annihilating him, as it’s been annihilating everyone. As Antigone, Eilin O’Dea motivates Creon’s line so well that it seems Anouilh has written it in response to the actress. Anouilh’s play, as this production makes clear, is an important drama. Anouilh reworked Sophocles’ play keeping the ancient Greek names and keeping the action in Thebes. The characters, however, mention tobacco, blood tests, film and cars. The dissonance reminds us that Anouilh’s message of courage and moral responsibility is ageless. Anouilh has created a raisonneur in a character called simply The Chorus. Tragedy, he tells us, “has nothing to do with melodrama”. “In tragedy, argument is gratuitous,” he says, but this is a very strange line; Antigone and Creon will soo
Read more

C.S. Lewis on Stage: The Most Reluctant Convert

C.S. Lewis lived between 1898 and 1963. He’s best known for his works of fiction such as The Screwtape Letters and The Chronicles of Narnia , although his non-fiction work is arguably more important. He ranks among the foremost 20 th -century Christian apologists and theologians. Max McLean has written a terrific solo show in which he presents Lewis in his study at Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1950, C.S. Lewis on Stage: The Most Reluctant Convert . Mr. MacLean is the show’s actor, and he’s co-directed it with Ken Denison. The script details Lewis’ conversion from atheism to Christianity, delineating the transformation in discrete steps. Lewis begins with his childhood in Belfast: “Mother’s death produced in me a deeply engrained pessimism,” he tells us. And “At 13 I ceased to be a Christian. At that age one scarcely notices.” He was confirmed in The Church of Ireland “in total disbelief.” The script presents us with the structure of Lewis’ life – his time at Oxford, his enli
Read more

A Blanket of Dust

Image
Photo by Sharon Kinsella In Richard Squires’ play A Blanket of Dust, presented at The Flea Theater by Delphi Film in association with Alfonso Ramos and Eve Pomerance, a woman, Diane, looses her husband in the 9-11 disaster. She’s convinced that the government is responsible for the catastrophe, and campaigns to uncover the conspiracy. She’s a Senator’s daughter, so the issue becomes a family affair. Years later, she becomes involved with Andrew, a book store owner active in the dissident movement. Andrew is also at odds with his parents on political issues (his father is in government but it’s not clear what his position is.) In frustration, Andrew commits suicide - he sets fire to himself - in protest. This is all pretty grim, but, well, it’s a grim world, and it’s good to see issue- committed theater.   Mr. Squires’ keeps his script as lean as the WTC towers. The characters have no identity aside from their attitudes toward the issue, aside from the sketchy romance. Ther
Read more