Emilia COMMENT 11 Nov 2022

THEATRE

Written by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm

At Playhouse, Arts Centre Melbourne

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

This show could not be fully reviewed as I did not see the second half. i.e. No stars allotted.

 This comment published only on this blog. KH

Manali Datar & Lisa Maza-Photo by Dylan Hornsby-Good Gravy Media

Let’s begin by saying that I cannot review the entire performance of Emilia because it stopped after 45 minutes when the actor playing a tepid version of William Shakespeare (Heidi Arena) said, in character something to the effect of, “Oh, I just felt something snap in my shin!” After Genevieve Picot entered stage left and attempted to improvise to cover the stoppage, an announcement asked all performers to leave the stage. 10-15 mins later, after many people had already left the theatre, a further announcement stated that the show would recommence in 15 minutes.

 

That was enough for me and my guest who had already left after the first announcement. Perhaps the more lively and interesting parts of the play were yet to come (according to Michael Billington’s 2018 review of the production at the Globe in London), but the first 45 minutes of this production by Essential Theatre was sluggish, with amateurish direction and acting, apart from a short and entertaining burst of choreography that merged Elizabethan dance with hip-hop. The  staging does not effectively use or fill the Playhouse stage which feels too big for the production.

 

The diverse cast of 13 women and non-binary actors plays all the men and women in the story, some more successfully than others. The most credible and creditable performance was by Picot who portrayed Lord Carey as a believable, well-heeled Lothario who took Emilia as his mistress then, when she fell pregnant, took care to marry her to a wealthy courier.

 

Shakespeare scholars have tried for centuries to determine who was the Bard’s “Dark Lady” of the Sonnets. None has succeeded in arguing a clear case. Some think/thought that she was Emilia Bassano, a woman who lived in same period as Shakespeare and who was a poet and proponent for women in a world dominated by men although England was ruled by a woman, Queen Elizabeth I.

 

By focussing on Bassano, playwright Morgan Lloyd Malcolm is able to conflate contemporary issues about the roles and power of women with the 16^th century story.

 

In the play, Emilia is played by three woman, beginning with the young Emilia played by Manali Datar, Emilia in her middle years portrayed by Cessalee Stovall, then the older Emilia, played by Rachel Maza, who provides narration from the opening scene (and presumably, the rousing call to arms of the final monologue that I did not see.)

 

All the privileged male characters in the first half of the show (i.e. the part that I saw) are depicted as entitled and variously simpering, sleazy or dim-witted. Shakespeare, in the first half at least, is depicted as a total buffoon.

 

They are caricatures that could be played with more wit and skill but end up as simplistic and even offensive male stereotypes. If the cast has greater technical performance skills, these male roles would be more effective in expressing the oppression of women in the Elizabethan period.

 

Go and see Emilia to see what happens to this feisty character and determine whether the production recovers from its early problems.

 

by Kate Herbert

 

 

Cast

 Emilia 1 Manali Datar

Emilia 2 Cessalee Stovall

Emilia 3 Lisa Maza

William Shakespeare / Man 2 Heidi Arena

Lady Margaret Clifford / Midwife / Man 1 Emma J Hawkins

Lord Alphonso Lanier / Lord Collins / Emilia (Othello) and others Catherine Glavicic

Margaret Johnson / Mary Sidney / Hester Carita Farrer Spencer

Judith / Priest / Lord Henry Carey Genevieve Picot

Lady Cordelia / Lady Anne and others Jing-Xuan Chan

Susan Bertie The Countess of Kent / Mary Bob Amanda LaBonté

Lady Katherine / Desdemona (Othello) Sonya Suares

Lord Thomas Howard / Dave / Flora Sophie Lampel

Eve / Lady Helena  Sarah Fitzgerald

Stand by Covers NazAree Dickerson, Kuda Mapeza & Izabella Yen

 

Team

Director Petra Kalive

Movement Director Xanthe Beesley

Movement Associate Jennifer Ma

Set designer Emily Collett

Costume designer

Zoë Rouse Composer / Sound Designer Emah Fox and Sharyn Brand

Lighting Designer Katie Sfetkidis

Associate Lighting Designer Harrie Hogan

Production Manager Rockie Stone

Stage Manager Olivia Walker

Deputy Stage Manager Rain Iyahen

Assistant Stage Manager Amy Smith

Co-Producers Amanda LaBonté, Sophie Lampel, Darylin Ramondo & Sonya Suares

Associate Producer Trish Carlon