Hampstead theatre, London
There are shades of Blackadder in April De Angelis’s play about the great tragedian of 18th-century British theatre
There is a certain chutzpah to writing a comedy about the life of Sarah Siddons, the great tragedian of 18th-century British theatre. That is what April De Angelis does in this backstage drama, which packs some punches among its jokes on what it was to be a sole, female megastar of the stage.
Siddons (Rachael Stirling) is a woman in crisis when we first meet her. A daughter has died and her husband is shacked up with a mistress. Her brother, Kemble (Dominic Rowan), a fellow (more wooden) actor and theatre manager, is a bully who hustles her into parts.
