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| David Greenspan and Marin Ireland in Marie Antoinette. Photo © T. Charles Erickson, 2012. |
By LaurenYarger
I can’tthink of any better night to be sitting in the audience for the world premiereof David Adjmi’s screwy play MarieAntoinette at Yale Rep than Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 6. Most of us therewere checking our cell phones before and after the 8 pm performance as well asduring intermission for presidential election results.Thesignificance wasn’t lost as Marie’s fate, at the hands of an angry nation,played out on stage while outside, Americans flocked to the polls to make theirvoices known in an election where division between wealthy and poor once againwas front and center stage. In thissumptuous, eye-pleasing version of the last days of Marie Antoinette, Adjmiinterjects modern thoughts into history from France’s bloody Revolution to createa remarkable, thought-provoking and witty theatrical experience. When wefirst meet Marie (Marin Ireland), she and her court friends, better educated Yolandede Polignac (Hannah Cabell) and culturally savvy Therese de Lamballe (PollyLee), are nibbling away on decadent cake (get it?), chatting about whale bonecorsets and bemoaning the whispers that the “doomed experiment” of democracy inAmerica might be headed their way.“Theserumors. It hurts my head,” says Marie prophetically as her three-foot wig,supported by rigging, nods her confusion.Beingqueen isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. After all, she has to be on publicdisplay all the time and set the nation’s fashion (wonderfully accomplished bycostume designer Gabriel Berry’sbeautiful, yet practical 17th-Century/modern hybrids). Shealso has to be married to the childish and boorish Louis XVI (a very funnySteven Rattazzi) who is afraid of having delicate surgery that would allow himto consummate their marriage of seven years. Marie isn’t exactly waiting aroundfor Louis and becomes involved with handsome Swede Axel Fersen (Jake Silbermann).Marie’sbrother, Joseph (Fred Arsenault) brings news of their Austrian Empress Mother’swrath over Marie’s inability to produce an heir and he convinces an embarrassedLouis to go under the knife. Marie produces a Dauphin (Ashton Woerz).The queen’spopularity continues to decline, however, amidst a tabloid campaign (in theform of pamphlets in those days) with tales of her promiscuity and her actions involvinga necklace with which she supposedly tried to defraud the people. As sheescapes to the pleasure of playing peasant at L’Hameau, the fake farm sheconstructs, the real poor of the country rise up, storm the Bastille andcapture the royal family. Her only realfriend is a strange sheep (a puppet, operated, voiced and mimicked in action byDavid Greenspan) who tries to tell her the truth about her unpopularity (puppetdesign is by Matt Acheson).Later, Greenspan, this time sans puppet, but clad in a fleecy white formal coat,black leggings and a red tie to match the sheep’s appearance, comforts a freelycursing, miserable, wigless Marie in her cell as she awaits the guillotine. Now ifthat all sounds a little odd, it is, but delightfully so. Adjmi (Stunning, TheEvildoers) combines wit, historical facts and razor-sharp characters tocreate a really insightful look into these historic characters – and at a timewhen mobs of poor, unkempt Occupy Wall Street protesters focusing on the nation’swealthy and screaming “I’m the 99 percent” makes us realize that we have morein common with Revolutionary France than we might have realized (and again,seeing the show on the night of an historic presidential election was a treatbetter than cake.)The actionplays out against yellow-toile-covered walls with whimsical set pieces andprops accenting the various scenes (set design by Riccardo Hernandez), some involving startling special effectsaccompanied by dramatic sounds of the revolution (sound design by MattHubbs).Ireland is fun to watch as she chews up and spits out just abouteverything she comes in contact with while maintaining that she just wants thesimple life. Rattazzi is even more amusing when he gets in her way. BrianWiles, Jo Lampert, Vin Knight and Teale Sperling round out the ensemble.Director Rebecca Taichman does a nice job putting the tale together, usingchoreography by Karole Armitage to have the actors deliberately move betweenscenes and place props. It’s like watching people deliberately walk to theirdoom. One criticism: Taichman needs to clean up some of Ireland’s fast-paced,yelling dialogue, which is very difficult to understand, particularly at thetop of the play.Marie Antoinette wascommissioned by Yale Rep and is presented in co-production with AmericanRepertory Theater atHarvard University. It runs through Nov. 17 at Yale Repertory Theatre, 1120 Chapel St., New Haven. Tickets range from $20-96, and are available online at www.yalerep.org, by phone at 203-432-1234, and in person at the Yale Rep Box Office (1120 Chapel Street). Student, senior, and group rates are also available.
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