Cosima – Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin

Writer: Sheena Lambert

Director: Rex Ryan

The first feeling of walking into the Boys’ School stage in Smock Alley to see Cosima was one of panic – Ride of the Valkyries was playing on a tinny speaker, so all that I could conceivably know about the titular character, wife of the 19th century composer Richard Wagner, had already been referenced. Would the next 75 minutes (ten minutes longer than the advertised 65) drag by in a smog of classical music jargon and history?

The answer, to this reviewer’s great relief, was certainly not – Mary Murray in the one role brought Sheena Lambert’s script to spirited, occasionally manic, life with a sparkling performance, albeit one that threatened to tip over into the mad woman in the attic.

Cosima’s life is laid out in brief, as we learn that she was the daughter of Franz Liszt, the great musician of his age. Inspired by his celebrity, she hopes to emulate him and become a musician; the key point comes when she describes his yawning at a recital of hers. She is forced to marry the mediocre Hans von Bülow, but soon begins an affair with Wagner, eventually marrying him and establishing a long-running festival in his name.

Cosima is presented as wilful, passionate, canny, sexually liberated, and adept at organising both Wagner’s performances and the eventual festival. She is a woman who refuses to allow her conservative culture’s norms to prevent her from achieving what she wants. While aspects of the true character’s personality may be absent – Stephen Moss in his 2103 “A to Z of Wagner” in the Guardian called her “pathological in her antisemitism” – this is a captivating performance of a woman who lived much of her life the shadows of her more famous father and husbands.

Lambert’s script is a well-crafted narrative, which is not easy to pull off in a one-person show. While some of the modern cultural references don’t quite land – comparing Liszt to Justin Bieber doesn’t feel clever enough, it takes us out of the moment – this is a minor criticism, and Eoin Winning’s lighting, while simple, subtly evokes and creates a mood with ease. The bare wall of the Boys’ School is the ideal backdrop, and Murray’s presence is such that only 3 pieces of furniture and some rotating hairpieces are all that are required onstage to bring Cosima to life.

Runs Until 20th July 2024.