The Trial of Marie Antoinette is historical drama, played with some gusto, that illustrates a largely-ignored piece of the past. There is a lot to like about it, most notably the performance of Julie Tallis as French queen Marie Antoinette (1755-1793), and also Stephen Connery-Brown's cameo as the Royalist member of the defence team.

Peter Langdon's script is in effect a lengthy apologia for the deposed queen, which works best when it has a bit of courtroom drama about it - particularly a scene where two hapless lawyers try to prepare Marie Antoinette for her coming show-trial.

The script is also determined to show how the revolution in France became corrupt, and by 1793 was largely an exercise in blood-letting and revenge on the part of the rabble, rather than a setting-right of past wrongs. Unfortunately, sometimes its painstaking attention to detail and its concern to show the full picture make it cumbersome.

The history lesson provided here may work if interested. If there is a generality about revolutions, it must surely be that they are difficult to stop, and painful excesses often follow. In England, in France, in Russia, the overthrow of a ruling class led to much suffering.

It's easy to sympathise with the personal tragedies of individuals caught up, but brutality is often built upon the brutality of a previous regime, and Peter Langdon's spirited defence of his heroine may go too far. So too, may his caricature portrayals of everyone involved as revolutionaries. The prosecutor Fouquier-Tinville may be feared, but it is not for his intellect - if his portrayal by James Hayward (manfully striving to evoke a hero of the masses) is to be believed.

There are other flaws. The play is too long. It is determined to reveal each and every aspect of the terror wrought on the helpless victim. The trial was always going to be a show, and surely there is too much detail? Having prepared for the trial intensively, the defence lawyers say nothing throughout, which seems odd. Equally, the question of why there never was any intervention or help for Marie Antoinette from abroad is casually brushed aside.

This is a drama built around a dramatic piece of history, and the tragedy of a (largely) innocent woman enmeshed in a historical crisis should be a theme which is worth developing. In trying to do too much, there is a loss of focus behind the detail. In trying to show everything, it doesn't reveal enough.

Cast Credits: (alpha order): Michael Bagwell - Bault. Helen Belbin - Rose Bertin / Renée. Stephen Cheriton - Simon / Valazé. Stephen Connery-Brown - Tronson Doucoudray. Lucy Grainger - Egle. James Hayward - President Fouquier-Tinville. Cassie Laver - Rosalie. Rhys Lawton - Claude Chaveau-Lagarde. Stuart Sessions - Jacques-René Hebert. Julie Tallis - Marie Antoinette.

Company Credits: Writer - Peter Langdon. Director - Peter Langdon. Lighting Designer - Ciaran Cunningham. Sound Designer - uncredited. Technical Operator - uncredited. Stage Manager - Grace Shaw. Producer - Peter Langdon. Producer - Julie Tallis. Company - Once. Website - www.trialofmarieantoinette.co.uk, oncetheatre.com.

END

(c) Michael Spring 2009

reviewed Thursday 6 August 09 / The Courtyard Theatre, Hoxton, London UK

Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012

www.fringereport.com