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Untitled
by Lena Farugia Directed by Peter Cregeen
Designed by Alex Marker
Lighting by James Smith
Sound Design by Matt Downing.
Finborough Theatre Tuesday, 3 February – Saturday, 14 March 2009
I
A review by Rosie Fiore for EXTRA! EXTRA!
By reputation, the Finborough Theatre presents very high-class work, and a glance through the biographies of everyone involved in this production set me up with high hopes. I was not to be disappointed. Someone, or a lot people, expended a great deal of time, money and effort on every aspect of this production. The intensively researched script and every detail of the set, props, lighting, direction, and the truly outstanding performances showed care and attention to detail. It is an infinitely classier show than one might expect to see in a pub theatre in West Brompton of a chilly Tuesday night. In brief, this is a bio-play (is that the theatrical version of a biopic?) of Wallis Simpson, the American divorcee for whom Edward VII abdicated his throne. The title of the play refers to the fact that on the eve of the wedding, the Royal Family decreed that she could never use the title HRH. We meet Wallis, elderly, confused, living alone in her villa in Paris, cared for by a butler and hounded by paparazzi and her own crushing memories. Farugia’s accomplished writing and the accomplished performances by McAuliffe and Ryecart lead us through the maze of her mind… sometimes lucid, sometimes totally lost in the past, sometimes deeply confused. Anyone who has had a relative or friend with senile dementia will recognise the pattern. Ryecart plays Wallis’ butler, whom she sometimes mistakes, in her confusion, for the now dead Duke of Windsor. When she does, he ‘becomes’ the Duke, and the memories of their time together are re-enacted. He moves seamlessly between the characters and offers a steady and reliable foil to McAuliffe’s mercurial performance. I can’t praise her performance enough. She holds the stage for much of the two-hours (and never leaves the stage at all), and she invests thought and effort in every aspect of her work, her physicality, showing Wallis’ age through the various scenarios, her subtly changing Anglo-American accent, her biting wit and slightly raucous laugh. You may surmise that throughout this review, there’s been a “but” hovering… and of course there is. It’s not a big “but”, however, on reflection, I can’t not mention it. I’m just not sure that the world is enriched by yet another retelling of this story. Wallis herself wrote a book, the Duke wrote a book, and countless novels, biographies, films and plays have raked over the story. “Untitled” seems to gloss over the more controversial aspects of the story: was Wallis truly devoted to the Duke (and was she faithful?)? What of their supposed pro-Nazi sympathies? There is also almost no attempt to reflect on how this royal tragedy can be viewed through what we have learned through the more recent Charles/ Diana/ Camilla sadness, or indeed how differently we might all have felt, as contemporary Britons about an issue such as this. I left the theatre feeling I’d watched a really excellent, well-produced piece of theatre, competently put together in every detail. I’m just not sure it gave me anything I didn’t already know, or even a lot to think about. I’d still recommend it, especially for Nichola McAuliffe’s nuanced performance, but “Untitled” is not going to change the world. Finborough Theatre Box Office 0844 847 1652 Tickets: £13, £9 concessions, except Tuesday evenings £9 all seats, and Saturday evenings £13 all seats. Previews £9 all seats. Times: Tuesday to Saturday evenings at 7.30pm, Sunday matinees at 3pm, Saturday matinees at 3pm (from February 14, 2009).
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