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Dame Judi Dench as Madame Du Mompreuil |
French kiss an
old regime goodbye
MADAME DE SADE
Wyndham's Theatre
THIS is the third play in the Donmar season at the Wyndham’s. Michael Graint, the director, follows the policy of giving an airing to curious and rarely performed plays.
De Sade was written by a Japanese poet and playwright, Yukia Mishima, and the translation is by Donald Keen, an English scholar.
It all takes place in the home of Madame Du Mompreuil (Dame Judi Dench) over 20 years (1771-90). Her daughter, De Sade’s wife Renee (Rosamund Pike), refuses to condemn her notorious husband despite her mother’s moral and legal pursuit. To some his life is an unspeakable chapter of sexual horror and cruelty. To others he is the champion of the Enlightenment, preaching and advocating absolute personal freedom, all of which struck a resounding note in Mishima.
A cast of six women symbolise the old and the dying attitudes of the French upper classes whilst the revolution of 1789 ticks nearer. Of course, it is superb to watch Judi Dench back on stage after three years and her authority has never been stronger.
Rosamund Pike watches with doglike devotion as her husband, pursued by his mother-in-law’s legal writs, continues to savagely beat prostitutes and others unfortunate enough to cross his path. He never appears.
Eventually, Madame De Sade declares her own liberation and I suspect it is a call for womanhood, a profound switch.
For those hungry for sexual excitement, Frances Barber is the Comtesse de Saint-Fond. She struts around with a riding crop, smacking her thighs in a disturbing manner.
At the core, it spells out the end of the ancient regime, challenging preconceptions of De Sade. But who wins the argument of whether or not promiscuity is a milestone to personal liberation or social and moral chaos?
Mishima committed ritual suicide in November 1970, agonising for a return to a Seven Samurai Japan. De Sade died in a lunatic asylum in 1814, leaving behind a new word: sadism. As did Mishima, who left worrying and challenging ideas.
There was applause for Dame Judi and she deserved it. She needs the stage and the stage needs more of her.
Until May 23
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