Actor brings famed divorcee to life
The Duchess A.K.A. Wallis Simpson
Until April 18 | The Cultch Historic Theatre Tickets and Info: from $19 at 604-251-1363 or thecultch.com
Oscar Wilde once quipped that “there are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.” In The Duchess A.K.A. Wallis Simpson, now playing at the Cultch, we are introduced to a woman who lives a little bit of both.
In the script by Linda Griffiths, who died before this first professional production made it to the stage, the infamous story of American double-divorcee Wallis Simpson and King Edward VIII is an inverted fairy tale set against the opulent backdrop of a world on the verge of cataclysmic change.
The play’s title positions the titular character as a kind of glamorous thief — the cat burglar who stole the crown jewels (all innuendo intended). But there are also Shakespearean overtones to Simpson’s ambition, as if Lady Macbeth gave up on her boring old husband and decided to go for the gold on her own.
Though it humanizes her, the script doesn’t shy away from the moral ambiguity that surrounded Simpson. Rather, Simpson, Edward VIII and their parade of hangers-on are standins for their age. They are all caricatures plucked from the pages of 1920s Vanity Fair magazine — of the vanity of dying European powers, the vulgarity and greed of the ascending New World.
This is not a perfect production. Griffiths’ script tends to pile up ascending levels of selfcomment, pulling out of the action at unexpected moments to revel in the modern parallels or repercussions of its historical subject. It felt as if there were a few places, particularly in the first act, when jokes could have been held for another beat, offering the audience time to get into the rhythm and tone.
The choreography is good fun, but the performers don’t always seem quite equal to its demands. And the shoes donated by Fluevog seem to trip up more than they dazzle.
This is director Sarah Rodgers’ second go at this particular script — her first was a 2012 production for UBC theatre. With her she brings a number of that cast to round out writer Griffiths’ glamorous faerie world, including Xander Williams who reprises his role as the foppish Noël Coward, acting as a kind of MC for the evening.
Williams inhabits the role beautifully, but is ill-served by the position of his piano, which
The choreography is good fun, but the performers don’t always seem equal to its demands.
faces stage left, forcing him to sing with his neck craned far over his shoulder while playing.
New to this production is Ruby Theatre artistic director Diane Brown as Simpson. Tall, pale and capable of prancing the line between grace and vulgarity, Brown gleefully makes the role her own. This is not the misused beauty of Madonna’s 2011 film W.E. — she’s far more complicated than that. She eats Craig Erickson’s boyish Edward VIII alive, and stands toe-to-toe with Hitler himself.
But it’s still uncomfortable to watch some of the stereotypes played out on stage and, particularly in an early brothel scene that mirrors Macbeth’s meeting with the witches, it’s hard not to wonder whether this production went a bit too far.
The background of Michael Bock’s set is a lovely evocation of 1920s art deco design, but there proved some difficulty with the central blocks that come apart and had to be clipped and anchored with each movement. Also, note that when Hitler comes on stage the second time, he is carrying a giant paintbrush, not a mop.
But again, Brown’s pitch perfect Simpson makes it all absolutely worth it. Tall and sassy, at once scandalously immoral and beguilingly naive, she sashays through history seducing men and destroying just about everything she touches.