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Interesting
twist to old class fable
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HERE TO BOOK THEATRE TICKETS
HILDA
Hampstead Theatre
FRENCH writer Marie Ndiaye’s first claim to fame was a
100-page novel comprised of a single sentence.
Likewise, her most recent play, Hilda, strives to be different
but suffers from a similar sprawl of consciousness, setting
out with great endeavour but trailing off into an incoherent
ramble.
Enter the striking lady of the house, Mrs Lemarchand (Stella
Gonet) sitting inside a glasshouse on a rotating stage. Odd-job
man Franck (Bo Poraj) – the David Beckham of the piece
– visits her seeking work.
Frank’s wife Hilda needs a job. Mrs Lemarchand wants a
servant.
But alarm bells ring for the handsome, obtuse labourer when
the sex-starved mistress interviews him about his wife. Is she
pretty? Is she politically active? Does she use contraception?
Mrs Lemarchand says she is an ex-revolutionary, a member of
the Socialist Party in need of servants to love and to exploit.
She obsesses over Hilda, dominating the husband and steadily
weaning his wife away from him. But Hilda, who is never seen,
rejects her mistress’s hospitality.
What looked to be a unique take on the well-worn class divide
fable drew bursts of spontaneous laughter from all around the
theatre.
The tragedy of a socialist aristocrat who loved her servants
too much, rather than the poor maid struggling against her wealthy
oppressors, is a part rarely seen before – like a compassionate
Nazi in a play about the Holocaust.
But this idea was never really followed through as Mrs Lemarchand’s
grip on her housekeeper’s husband tightens. The script
changes tack and suddenly Franck takes centre stage. Hard-up
and unable to work, he effectively sells Hilda off and shacks
up with her sister, his good intentions devoured by the social
vampire Need.
As the themes revolved, and the set rotated, something rich
and strange suffered a sea change.
Solid performances from both Poraj and Gonet but Hilda seemed
to me a missed opportunity.
Until May 6
020 7722 9301
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HERE TO BOOK THEATRE TICKETS |
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