Writer: Sheena Lambert
Director: Rex Ryan
Visit Viking immediately for this wonderful one-act, one-person show. Be embraced in the intimacy of this delightful venue for a riveting depiction of a musician’s efforts to circumvent the restrictions of her era.
Mary Murray delivers a spirited performance of the talented Cosima trying to establish a music career in the 1850s. Despite her father, Franz Liszt, being a famous pianist, Cosima was thwarted by his notions of propriety. Females from good families did not perform in public. The tribulations of Cosima, from haphazard girlhood to adulthood, and her scandalous liaison with Richard Wagner, provide enthralling subject matter for playwright Sheena Lambert’s drama. The script by Lambert succinctly captures critical moments in this unconventional woman’s life. Though a mystifying interjection of topical allusions and current colloquialisms disturb the narrative flow, they garner laughs from the audience.
Direction under Rex Ryan ensures a fast paced portrayal of Cosima’s lifetime. The clever, on-stage, seamless transitions between vignettes of key episodes in her life are oddly peppered with highly emotional screeches, perhaps alluding to an ardent nature. This dichotomy between a hard headed business woman and an impassioned female is not fully explored in the script. A one-act play is too short to offer further insights into the triumphs of Cosima Liszt-Wagner, the impresario who masterminded the Bayreuth Wagner Opera Festival for decades.
Black costumes, black background and sparse props ensure a focus on the vigorous acting capabilities of Mary Murray and the lighting heightens the dramatic impact. This provides an absorbing enactment of one woman’s effective surmounting of 18th century social mores.
Throughout the performance, the warmth of the audience toward the play, the actress and the venue is palpable and being immersed in this encouraging milieu is an experience worth repeating. The Viking Theatre currently celebrates its 13th birthday. Check out this and all forthcoming productions at the Viking Theatre to plunge yourself in an informal, relaxed, electrifying theatre event.
Runs Until14th Dec 2024.