Not exactly forgotten, Sarah Siddons is certainly less familiar to many theatregoers than she should be, with male actors like Garrick, Kean and even Siddons’ brother Kemble far better known and more often the subject of portraits in our galleries. In The Divine Mrs S, author April de Angelis has created an intelligent, thoughtful and above all amusing version of Sarah’s life, or at least that section of it when she was seeking to break free from the confines of her brother’s theatre and company.

Director Anna Mackmin sets the action on a composite of stage and dressing room, in an achingly theatrical set from designer Lez Brotherston. From the oil lamps to the drapes, the hemp lines to the backs of the flats, the set reeks of the traditional wooden stage house. On these boards strut just six actors, three of them playing one part each and the other three switching through many different portrayals. The occasional spoken stage directions are very effective and add to the general theatrical aura.

In a masterful and full-throated performance, Rachel Stirling is totally convincing. Whether showing us the remarkable realism Siddons brought to the mannered 18th century stage or the battles she had to fight in her personal life, it’s an all-encompassing and definitive portrayal. Opposite her, at least on the stage within a stage, is Dominic Rowan as her brother John Philip Kemble. He has a ball with the acting style portrayed, but is also very funny as the offstage slightly dim brother who is running a theatre like a personal fiefdom. His choice of parts rests on those where, as he says of a new play, there is just “a woman while he is all raging passion and planet-sized emotion.”

The third actor with a single part is Anushka Chakravarti as the newly hired servant Matti. Although her character could be seen to function mainly as a sounding board for Siddons, this is a sensitive and engaging performance that makes much of the opportunities given. Playing all the other roles are three versatile actors. Eva Feiler very much makes her mark as spurned playwright Joanna Baillie and forlorn Clara, as well donning a beard or wielding a sword to great effect as necessary. Gareth Snook gets a lot of laughs as critic Boaden, as well as playing various hangers on. Sadie Shimmin as a comic member of the Kemble company makes a good contrast to the kind of changes Siddons is aspiring to, and she also plays Mrs Larpent, the censor’s mouthpiece (“Theatre is a dangerous place”) and a prison warder, in a well-differentiated trio of roles.

Siddons was celebrated in her lifetime for her portrayal of Lady Macbeth, seen as realistic in a period when acting was as much about stock gesture and shouting into the dark as it was about realism. The extract from The Stranger at the beginning of the evening gives a fascinating picture of how it might have been to be in the audience at Drury Lane at the time, as does the extract from Macbeth that ends the play.

In a script that is stuffed with amusing modernisms and anachronistic language, it is clear that a central point is being made about the limited agency available to female actors of the time, even at the top of the profession. When Siddons gets a better role in De Montfort, written by a female playwright and even allowing her to interrupt men, this lasts but one performance before the play’s authorship is revealed and it is dropped. The tensions arising from balancing a life in the theatre with raising a family are also apparent, another link with current concerns.

Although these themes underpin the play, its main offering is a welcome opportunity to see something of 18th century theatrical ways in a carefully crafted play which is always amusing, often hilarious, and deserves a life beyond its initial run at Hampstead Theatre; and the Press Night audience stuffed with actors and quite a few critics definitely enjoyed seeing versions of themselves and their own concerns on stage.

**** Four Stars

Reviewed by Chris Abbott

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