Fringe review: VICTORINE - THE ARTIST’S MODEL, Moon Rabbit - Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Paintings are like women; nice to look at, scary if they start to talk.
This is how we are introduced to Victorine, an artist’s model living in 1860s Paris. She’s escaped her grey dull life in Dublin and is eager to experience something more, something more colourful, something brimming with fire. But the question is, how long does one have to wait for their own burst of inspiration?
Written by Joshua King, and performed by Jasmine Gleeson (the pairing behind innovative theatre company Moon Rabbit), Victorine: The Artist’s Model is an historical one-woman show that follows on from the success of last year’s The Political life of Philomena McGuiness. It explores the life of a young artist’s model as she walks the fine line between the inspiration for someone else and finding something that inspires not only her own work but her own life.
On stage alone with nothing more than a table, two chairs, a bottle of wine, a sketchbook, an easel and a paintbrush, Gleeson brings Victorine to life, taking us through her journey with its ups and its downs. This isn’t a story of a women who is downtrodden, told that she can’t just because she’s a women, she knows she is more than that. She doesn’t allow anyone but herself to tell her story, she knows what she wants and whilst there may be questions about how she can achieve it, she doesn’t allow that to stop her. Gleeson creates a character who is powerful, determined, driven by the love of painting, who finds colour and light in the ordinary. She plays Victorine with a fiery passion, depicting also the characters who shaped her life and career; the best friend, the artist for who she is the muse and those around her who inspired her in a commanding performance that has the audience hanging on her every word.
King’s script is laden with elegant imagery and clever references to the time bouncing the audience from cafes where the art students meet, artists studios where pairings cover every surface and touches upon the war. By creating such a strong character in Victorine, King tells a story driven not by trouble and turmoil, but by a pure and inspiring love of an art form that has the power to transform and bring people together.
Currently playing at Greenside @ Riddles Court, the venue is quaint and cosy, and praise must be given to Gleeson as she effortlessly continues to tell Victorine’s story as we hear music playing from other rooms.
In a tale of love, inspiration and determination, we find a young women whose story deserved to be told.
**** Four stars
Reviewed by: Rebecca Wallis
Victorine: The Artist’s Model plays in the Willow Studio at Greenside @ Riddles Court at 3.05pm until 26 August.
