The Divine Mrs S – Hampstead Theatre – Saturday 20th April 2024

(Rated 4/5)

This could well be the longest after the event that I am writing a review of a theatrical production which I have enjoyed. Though she may be divine, poor Mrs S got a little lost amongst appearances of the equally divine Mr R, and this restricted reviewer going beyond her restrictions to travel around the country to see said Mr R in his ‘House of Jojo’ with different theatre-going companions each time! However, I simply cannot allow more time to pass, before I write about Rachael Stirling as the titular Sarah Siddons, for fear of forgetting to note down what I’d like to say about her!

I was mesmerised by Rachael Stirling in ‘Boy Meets Girl’, in which hers and Martin Freeman’s character swap bodies following being struck by lightening. I have to admit, I’ve kind of forgotten Martin’s performance, but was so impressed by Rachael literally embodying a man, that she stuck fast in my brain, and I wanted to see whatever she was in! Yes, of course, her natural voice lends itself to us believing she may be a different gender, but her movements and manner as the male character blew me away. Since then, I’ve seen her in a few screen pieces – an episode of ‘Doctor Who’ with her mother Diana Rigg, ‘The Detectorists’ also with her character’s mother played by her mother, Diana Rigg and an episode of ‘Agatha Christie’s Poirot’ (nope, Diana Rigg not in that one!) with David Suchet as Poirot, though a little disappointingly no scenes with him. She particularly moved me in the ‘Poirot: Five Little Pigs’ episode. She has such an incredible presence, and of course, when I heard about her playing ‘the best-known tragedienne of the 18th century’ on stage, I wanted to be in the front row to see her. There is something so special about being so up close and personal to an actor performing – to be able to see every little movement of their body, every subtle change in expression on their face and hear every nuance in intonation of their voice. Yep, you have to pay more, of course, but I almost feel why bother going if you can’t witness the subtleties in those qualities. And, though the play by April De Angelis did somewhat, Rachael herself did not remotely disappoint. The play was written as a farce, which I guess is appropriate and of the time, but somehow felt incongruent with a piece exploring the backstage world of a tragedienne. Then again maybe that contrast was deliberate. For me, all the other characters felt two-dimensional next to Rachael’s three-dimensional Sarah. I imagine for the portrayal of her brother, John Philip Kemble by Dominic Rowan, that may have been deliberate – my favourite scene is when Sarah attempts to help John tap into his own emotional experience for his acting – she was clearly using Method Acting before Stanislavski came along with it in the next century – whilst her brother was using the over-exaggerated gesturing and voicing more typical of the style of acting at that time. But, aside from Anushka Chakravarti’s assistant/maid for Mrs S, Patti, for me the performances of all the other characters lacked depth too. Then again, maybe tricky to do anything more when playing multiple characters as Eva Feiler, Sadie Shimmin and Gareth Snook all did – differences detectable by costume, but not much else unfortunately I felt. With all that, it meant Rachael’s Sarah really did stand out, and of course she absolutely was the main focus – Sarah Siddons the first celebrity actress; Mrs Siddons fashioned celebrity in all the multiple meanings of that word. In this version of Mrs S’s story, we see the potential psychological consequences of Sarah using her unhealed life traumas to access emotional depth. Again, with the farcical nature of the play, we lose the impact of that dramatically a little. It did, though, have me thinking of the contrast in approach between Marilyn Monroe (very much Method) and Lawrence Olivier and how the latter suggested to another Method actor Dustin Hoffman, ‘Why don’t you try acting, dear boy?’ As another Method actor once told me, ‘I don’t understand how you do it any other way, than from experience.’ But, clearly, many actors do, and with great results 😊 So, in fact, there does not have to be Method in their Madness.

In this production, we, as the real audience, see everything pretty much from the backstage dressing room of Mrs. S. We do see her, and fellow actors, perform as though to the audience in the plays within this play from the back of the stage, with either their backs to us, or from the side. We see Sarah in various roles, snippets of her performances of those characters and their impact on her and vice versa. We also get a good overview of the nature of theatre and the environment stage folk were working and living in at that time. It feels like a little taster, and left me wanting to know a great deal more about Sarah Siddons. Thankfully, that will be possible thanks to a biography by Jo Willett.

As the play ends, we, the real audience, merge with the fictional one, as Rachael Striling as Sarah Siddons plays Lady Macbeth! She gives us her most famous role.

Billed as a comedy, this play and production, were not laugh-out-loud funny; just maybe at points making me chuckle slightly, but seeing Rachael Stirling on stage is indeed divine! TheDivineMrsS – Review by TheRestrictedReviewer © 2024