Writer and Director: Bern Hogan
Big historical movements get more than enough attention on stage, screen and on the page. We can, mostly, all articulate the broad sweeps of happenings like the Industrial Revolution, World Wars, the American War of Independence. So, it’s great to see the focus turned to the small but mighty stories that form the integral parts of these major moments, showing the brush strokes that create those big picture events. The Necklace Scam can be seen as a key moment of change in public opinion regarding Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI, leading to their downfall in the French Revolution – all started by an ambitious and determined fraudster Countess Jeanne.
The play follows the Countess’ self-narration of her wild life from rural poverty as the daughter of an illegitimate line of descendants of French King Henry II to a member of the Queen’s court, scamming cardinals with her policeman husband and gigolo lover, to her death in London (she’s buried in the graveyard at Lambeth Palace) on the run from debt collectors.
With a cast of characters like this, writer and director Bern Hogan has rightly identified the comic potential of the story. That potential and comic resource is stretched super thin in the final airing however. At nearly two hours, it’s packed with great historical notes and does a good job relating the story and the plotting intricacies. But there’s a lot of talking and explaining background, and sections that could have made a delightful quip are extended past breaking point. At one part, we’re shown the same interaction four different times in succession – ostensibly to show different perspectives but this focus was on too minor a moment in the story to have an impact.
While the main characters are sympathetic and engaging (Isabel Lamers as Jeanne and Joshua Jewkes as her lover Rétaux the others grate. Caricatures of posh but dim husbands, spoiled royalty, randy clergymen and wittering ladies-in-waiting make up the rest of the show and while funny enough at their introduction they don’t evolve much so feel repetitious.
Set, of course, in pre-revolutionary France, there is some fun to be had with the costumes. Creative and colourful, they add strength to the story and help differentiate and mark out the characters – all of which are played by three cast members (Jewkes, Hannah Moss and Elise Williams).
The battle between detail and engagement is seen clearly here. The play is fairly successful at managing that tension and strikes an OK balance. But investments in a red pen to manage the length of scenes and skipping a few details would pay big dividends in how much closer we could feel to the action and excitement of Jeanne’s life and her vital part in history.
Runs until 22 October 2022
The Reviews Hub Score
Fascinating story stretched thinly
