Theatre review: The Divine Mrs S

April De Angelis' The Divine Mrs S feels, in subject at least, like a successor to Jessica Swale's Nell Gwynn: Tracing the history of the original star actresses, we're in the Georgian era but the Restoration style of theatre still rules the London stage, and a woman can be the biggest draw and a genuine celebrity - and on acting talent alone this time, without the royal connection of her predecessor. Of course, having achieved her fame without a history of gossip and scandal, she's not immune to them once she's in the public eye. Rachael Stirling plays Mrs Sarah Siddons, member of the Kemble acting family, eclipsing her brothers in talent and popularity, but subject to the fickle moods of the papers and public that plague any woman who seems to be getting a bit too popular: Over the course of the evening we see how she can't win, and at the play's opening she's been criticised for returning to work too soon after her daughter's death.

Later in the story she'll lose another daughter, and will still be hounded for going back to her deathbed rather than do a fundraising performance for an injured actor. But in the meantime she's still grieving the first loss, and is fainting for real on stage nightly as her characters' dramas too closely mirror her own.

There's not a lot of other options open to her: Outside of Shakespeare, the most popular plays are melodramatic tragedies, and while she can bring genuine emotion to them all, the roles available to her are victims or grieving mothers. In her personal life, Siddons' cheating husband regularly loses every penny she earns in bad investments. She tries to get more control in her professional life, but here too her brother John Philip Kemble (Dominic Rowan,) as actor-manager of Drury Lane, gets the final word.

De Angelis' story drifts around a bit too much in story and tone, especially in the first act - we get a picture of the constant stress and in-fighting between the siblings, as well as the company dynamic and an insular theatrical world where both critic (Gareth Snook) and censor (Sadie Shimmin) are regular backstage visitors, all mutually influencing the others' work. But its framing as a backstage comedy is a bit off, a few good gags but not quite enough to justify a light tone that makes some of the darker elements sit awkwardly.

These include Kemble’s attempted sexual assault on Siddons’ maid Patti (Anushka Chakravarti) as well as a woman being inspired by a play to leave her abusive husband: Having to betray her proto-feminist credentials, Siddons advises Clara to return to him, because the news of one of her performances causing this kind of rebellion would end her career. Later being sent to a madhouse for neglecting her wifely duties, Clara is played by Eva Feiler, who also plays Joanna Baillie, discovered to be the author of an anonymous, highly acclaimed tragedy, whose public reception cools significantly when it’s revealed the playwright is a woman. (Female playwrights had been around since Aphra Behn, but it was understood they’d stick to light comedies.)

Siddons’ attempts to get Baillie to write her a play where she’s the lead form the main narrative thrust of the second half, which also takes in a tour of the British Isles she gets contracted to by her husband less for any financial benefit, seemingly more because she doesn’t want to do it. So The Divine Mrs S remains a play that struggles to give a narrative through-line, but this second act does improve as there’s less of the shaky comedy to distract from the stronger drama. Stirling is of course great at both, but she’s got more to work with in the latter, and brings that perfect balance of steeliness and vulnerability that makes the leading lady compelling.

Rowan also has a fine balancing act between the comic ham actor and the more serious ways he abuses his power behind the scenes, and the two work together particularly well in the scenes of the siblings on stage, where she can quietly excite actual emotion even while he pompously chews the scenery. The supporting cast race through a variety of roles to keep the energy up, while Lez Brotherston’s set and Mark Henderson’s lighting bring the murky backstage world to life as soon as the audience enters the auditorium. But for all that Anna Mackmin’s production keeps up the pace as it runs us through these major events in Siddons’ life, it doesn’t convince that De Angelis’ play couldn’t have done with a bit more focus (as exemplified when, way too late in the action for something like this, De Angelis throws in a much longer scene of Macbeth than seems necessary; Lady Macbeth may have been Siddons’ signature role, but I doubt anyone in London’s crying out for even more of that particular play at the moment.)

The Divine Mrs S by April de Angelis is booking until the 27th of April at Hampstead Theatre.

Running time: 2 hours 20 minutes including interval.

Photo credit: Johan Persson.