THE GLORIOUS FRENCH REVOLUTION (or: why it sometime's takes a guillotine to get anyhting done) @ New Diorama Theatre - review
Style over substance, but man is it stylish. ★★★★
On at New Diorama Theatre, NW1, until 14th December 2024.
Tickets £16/22, with concessions available.
Rating: ★★★★
THE GLORIOUS FRENCH REVOLUTION (or: why it sometime's takes a guillotine to get anyhting done) brought my history GCSE rushing back. What a shame that taking u16s to see this play would probably get you brought in front of a TRA panel. It is an accurate, though of course not comprehensive, telling of the Revolution from the Estates General to Napoleon which draws explicit parallels to our current polity. It is stylistically fabulous and unflinching, though substance feels somewhat lacking, especially at the conclusion.
Style - oh my! Designer Hazel Low has committed to a bit and has executed it perfectly, if you’ll pardon the pun. The entire stage and costuming is red, white and blue, with an extended school sports motif that goes beyond staging and into the physicality of the actors on stage. The titular guillotine comes out near the end - I’ll leave the circumstances vague, but it is flat pack and constructed before our eyes, perfectly suited for this rather humble space. Cast movement is well choreographed so that the regular moving of props and sets doesn’t interupt flow. Roles are swapped throughout, and denoted by handwritten (beautifully) signs hanging around necks, which streches the whole cast and gives some the chance to shine while others… maybe would be better suited to other shows. There is excellently executed audience participation, I won’t spoil your thrill by describing it, but it isn’t awkward in the slightest, and more broadly the audience is addressed throughout, both by whoever is currently narrating and as stand-ins for the People of France during the drama.
The middle of this play is a real treat, with history class pacing that whisks us through the boring but good-to-know bits and dwells heavily on key events with intense, darkly humourous vignettes. A particularly impressive example is the death of Bernard-René Jourdan de Launay, his slow, brutal death by mob narrated throughout by Paul Brendan, temporarily inhabiting the role, in the style of a sports broadcast. Despite no violence on stage, it’s hard not to visualize the play-by-play.
The start and end are unfortunate buffers. It takes a while to really get going, with lingering scenes of a camp, foppish king and equally camp aristocrats- the double camp, unbalanced, feels cringeworthy and poorly thought through, rather than the decadance I suspect they were going for. Joe Boylan and Jessica Enemokwu have very similar styles in high status roles: camp; smug; sneering; loosely Etonian. Separately, they’ve very good, but together it feels more like a sixth form sketch show.
The ending has a more substantial problem, which flattens much of the work done to faithfully tell the story. Throughout, they do a very good job of portraying the complexity and ultimate failure of the Revolution. The Terror is given the weight it deserves, more than most brief histories give it, and the story ends with Napoleon and the re-establishment of Monarchy in France. The ending ignores this complexity, laboriously drawing the audience into the conclusion already pre-determined by the title - that it is time for guillotines once again. It is an impactful and well done scene, building tension and ample time for reflection, it just doesn’t really fit into this narrative comfortably.
The cast is generally sound, with Paul Brendan star of the show. He tends towards acting as the straight man of this piece, often there to provide the intensity and realism that makes this an impactful piece of theatre rather than simply a dark panto. Sha Dessi’s talents are used to far greater effect here than in her (still good) role in Cable Street. She is a versatile quick-changer, bringing just enough authenticity and spot-on comedic timing to a series of effective caricatures.
With experimental form, bold and not particularly pretty aesthetic choices, and a strong anti-establishment message, The Glorious French Revolution (etc) will not be for anyone, but if those will not put you off, you should see it. Especially if you have a GCSE to brush up for.
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