Camille by Vault Theatre, Aug 26, 1997

Camille by Vault Theatre

at The Herbarium Botanical Gardens until Sept 20, 1997

Reviewed by Kate Herbert around Aug 26, 1997

Transposing a novel to film is difficult and requires editing. Transporting that screenplay to stage is a further artistic risk. Doing this sixty years after the original Hollywood movie Camille was made is taking a leap of faith with regard to the modern audience. Doing all of this to a movie starring Greta Garbo, a legend on screen and in life, is near madness.

Wayne Pearn, director of Vault Theatre, has done just this with his production of Camille which uses almost word for word the 1936 screenplay of the movie with a couple of additional speeches from the novel La Dame aux Camellias by Alexander Dumas jnr., from which the film is derived.

The movie is a lavish period romance starring a gorgeous Garbo as Marguerite, the consumptive Parisian courtesan and a very youthful Robert Taylor as Armand. It is difficult to compete with such exotica and, furthermore, such a budget.

The movie's pretty, sanitised version of decadent Parisian society is inappropriate for the 1990's, so Pearn adds some gritty realism in monologues by a prostitute, a misogynistic priest and Gaston's (Jeff Keogh) grubby jokes and story of a dead whore.

Marguerite (Reece Adams) has expensive habits and a rich Count to pay. She is 'neither respectable nor a virgin'. However, the under-funded Armand (Alan King) falls passionately in love with her and, finally, love conquers her; poor choice for a consumptive with no prospects and almost past her prime.

As the program suggests in its quote from Darwin, 'The forms, which stand in closest competition with those undergoing modification and improvement, will naturally suffer most.' Theatre cannot and should not attempt to compete with film on its own ground. The rhythms of a film are not transferrable to stage, particularly a promenade space with poor sight lines, spine-twisting angles and split focus staging.

The production has a narrow dynamic range and most of the performances are very mannered, self-conscious and on a single emotional note apart from some yelling from Armand Duval late in the piece.

Adams as Marguerite struggles with the difficult task of recreating Garbo's role. It was valiant to even attempt it. Louise Du Val (no relation) has authenticity as the insensitive costumiere, Prudence.

Music of the period enhances the piece but it cannot compete with Verdi's version of the story, La Traviata. Really, it was all just too hard.

KATE HERBERT