Writer and Director: Mary Swan
‘My work is about being brave’ – an artist is faced with a new challenge. Indestructible, now hosted in Clapham Common’s Omnibus Theatre, is a unique, poignant and startlingly witty meditation on women in art, the woman as the muse and guilt by association, and the results are highly thought-provoking and entirely engrossing.
Artist Catherine Shaw has had a solid career and an excellent collection. But when faced with her first exhibition in 10 years, the pressure is on, and her plans are big. Teamed with Robin (Paul Huntley-Thomas), her collector, patron and life-long friend, she is tasked to ‘reinvent’ a collection of pieces by female artists for a show that feels fresh and ‘relevant’ to today. Catherine finds herself turning to female artists that are old, new, and yet-to-be-discovered, as well as her own work. As she does so, she is confronted boldly and uncomfortably with the age-old question of women in art, its acute and unchecked misogyny, and faced with her own guilt by association with it, on many fronts.
Indestructible is an excellent match of a compelling script and superb performances; it’s throughout undeniably absorbing. As it asks profound questions like ‘Can you separate art from the artist? But crucially, should you?’ it does so it with delightful wit and dry humour that avoids the didacticisms of the production becoming tiresome.
Mary Rose as headstrong artist Catherine warms into a clearly composed character, confident in her work, sober, giving eloquent assessments of the art world but troubled by the active part she plays in its hypocrisies. A standout moment sees Catherine deliver a serious lecture to the audience on photographer Lee Miller’s famous photograph of Hitler’s bathtub, taken just after his suicide but before the capitulation of German forces. The dirt from concentration camps is still on Miller’s shoes and it muddies the bathmat. Catherine teaches the audience this context, acting as the art teacher, not the artist, and its sombre lessons are so well poised the audience actually leans back and learns like students in a lecture hall, not a chilly theatre in Clapham.
At another moment, a contrived broadcast interview with Catherine and critic Jonathon Jones on a Lee Miller exhibition takes actual quotes from his review in the Guardian in 2007 ‘This is an exhibition of The Art of Lee Miller, not of art that objectifies Lee Miller. Yet it would be a better, less prissy experience if it were more ready to acknowledge that Miller’s body was what made her central to modern art in the age of Picasso, Cocteau and Man Ray.’ Oh, 2007; it seems so far yet it is horrifyingly close. It’s a perfect comparison, not an excessive didactic message, but utterly clear.
Danny Charles as Christian, the enigmatic and flamboyant curator is a key set piece in this, at times, caustic vision. Christian lovingly talks about art in a classically pretentious way whilst being able to acknowledge that while art has meaning, is meaning, people have to come and buy a ticket, or buy a tote bag, or key ring, or poster.
Multimedia elements, designed by Christopher Harrison, have the same effect of demonstrating but not overtly showing the main talking points of Indestructible. Videos, messages and art are projected onto set pieces, onto backs of actors, onto walls. They seamlessly emphasise messages without disrupting the action.
The production’s main downfall is its length. That’s not to say any scene lacks energy or purpose; Mary Swan’s practised hand again sees off that risk, there are just simply too many of them. At almost two hours uninterrupted, even the most engaged audience fatigues. While the main points of the production are powerfully posed, eventually it just seems to be saying the same things in many different ways.
Aside from this, Indestructible makes for a hugely entertaining, important, and engaging piece of theatre. It’s a play that audiences will take with them long after the house lights come up.
Runs until 3 February 2024
