Saw this in preview. It's an intriguing but incomplete portrait of Emma Hamilton, Nelson's mistress, that is actually less about Hamilton, and more about the relationship between wayward mothers and their daughters.
It has a fascinating meta element to it, as it features a mother and a daughter in it, Caroline and Rose Quentin.
Caroline Quentin gives two noteworthy performances, as Mrs. Hamilton and her mother Mrs. Cadogan.
Some spoilers follow. . .
Can a woman have it all? And if she tries, how will her daughter feel about her? How does she feel about her daughter?
This is a play of two halves that is actually about the space in between. In the first half, Emma Hamilton (Rose Quentin) is on top of the world, and in the second, Emma Hamilton (Caroline Quentin) is an exiled deadbeat. The play seems to be about what happened in between, in that it is for the audience to try to parse how all this could possibly be.
I felt that the play does not really offer enough clues to the audience to figure out the mystery, which was slightly frustrating.
But along the way, it becomes increasingly clear that April De Angelis doesn't really care about any of that.
What this really is is a mirror play, whereby Emma Hamilton and her witty wayward mother, Mrs. Cadogan, trade barbs about Mrs. Cadogan's waywardness, after which Emma Hamilton, in the role of wayward "mother" to Nelson's daughter, Horatia, trades barbs with Horatia.
The real mystery of the show is how a woman becomes her own mother? Is it through genes, example, shared circumstances or happenstance?
As both "daughters," Rose Quentin is appealingly forceful and focused, but one-note and lacking self-awareness, like any younger daughter in a Jane Austen novel. It falls to Caroline Quentin to display all the enigmatic, comedic and tragic aspects of humanity, and she does.
At one point, a focal incident that dooms Emma Hamilton, her ménage a trois with her husband and Nelson, is referred to as a "mange trois," which allowed Caroline Quentin to morph briefly into her Mrs Malaprop character from "Jack Absolute." In this, and in other moments, the older Quentin is a hoot.
In the meta aspect of the play, will Rose Quentin become her mother? It won't be easy, but I hope so.
3 and a half stars of thoughtful but baffling sadness and fun.
PS: The running time was 1hr 45 minutes (including one interval). Also, there is a third performer, Riad Richie, who effectively greases the wheels of the plot.
