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A CurtainUp 
London Review
London ReviewEllen Terry with Eileen Atkins
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"Stay" quoth Reputation, "Do not forsake me; for it is my nature, If once I part from any man I meet, I am never found again."
— Ferdinand
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Eileen Atkins
(Photo: Pete Le May) |
Eileen Atkins' one woman show has Dame Eileen dressed as Ellen Terry with wig and long velvet coat like an academic gown over blue waistcoat and trousers. Her monologue about the plays she acted in, the material taken from Ellen Terry's books and lectures.
There are recordings of Ellen Terry speaking the Shakespearean roles with a delivery that struck me as more histrionic than would be allowed today. But Atkins delivers the lines in a more naturalistic way.
The show starts with Ellen Terry's recollections of playing Mamillius in A Winter's Tale when she was just eight years old. She also recalls playing Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream and finishing the play with a broken toe after a mishap with the stage trap door. We hear of her disappointment at never playing Rosalind, but Dame Eileen reads some of the part for us as Rosalind ventures into the Forest of Arden in search of her father and finds Orlando's messages.
Some comedy from Mistress Page from Merry Wives leads into the Renaissance heroine Portia in The Merchant of Venice. Oscar Wilde said of Ellen Terry's Portia, in a sonnet especially composed for her, "No woman Veronese looked upon / Was half so fair as thou whom I behold." Teh "quality of mercy" speech is said as if for the first time.
Our narrator tells us that Rosalind and Portia were tall, whereas Ophelia, Viola and Lady Macbeth were short and that Ellen Terry described Lady Macbeth as "the delicate little creature with hypersensitive nerves." We are told that Desdemona is a strong character, not a weak one, with the courage to be unconventional and we hear Emillia's part on discovering the dying Desdemona. About Juliet, she says "An actress cannot play Juliet until she is too old to look like Juliet" and her rendition of Juliet's speech before she takes the draught given to her by Friar Lawrence has such depth and freshness as to make it truly memorable. Ophelia is described as Shakespeare's only timid character and to play her Terry went to lunatic asylums to study the insane but found them too theatrical! Finally she creates both Cordelia and her aged father Lear.
In the pretty setting of the indoor Wanamaker at Shakespeare's Globe, the 75 minute show by candlelight is a masterclass with anecdotes and beautiful speeches. It is also a tribute to the women created by William Shakespeare. I expect, like the original, this show may well travel abroad as Samuel Beckett play written for radio, All That Fall did (review in London).
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| Ellen Terry with Eileen Atkins
Adapted and Performed by Eileen Atkins Artistic Director : Dominic Dromgoole Running time: 75 minutes without an interval Box Office: 020 7401 9919 Booking to 23rd February 2014 Reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge based on 26th January 2014 performance at The Wanamaker Playhouse, Shakespeare's Globe, New Globe Walk, London SE1 9DT (Rail/Tube: London Bridge) |
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