The Donmar West End Season is the hottest ticket around at the moment; Ivanov was lovely, Twelfth Night was a triumph (apart from the worst costume designs EVER from Christopher Oram) and then we have the all female Madame de Sade starring the jewel of British Drama, Dame Judi Dench. Unfortunately when I saw this pretty dull production (it was in fact pretty and dull) Dench had twisted her ankle, so I watched in pain as Marjorie Hayward struggled on, however anyone who has the guts to understudy Judi Dench deserves credit. There are some fine performances (Frances Barber is wonderfully wicked) and Oram makes up for the disaster of Twelfth Night. The real problem with Madame de Sade is that it is a terrible play; written in Japanese by Yukio Mishima in 1965 about the women in close contact with the Marquis de Sade in 1774, the play is dull and pointless. We see little of any storyline that we would be remotely interested in, we never meet the infamous Marquis or see the passion of the revolution. Instead we are subjected to the emotive and flowery language of five privileged and busty ladies. In its favour Madame de Sade only runs for 105 minutes. My question is what made Michael Grandage think that this practically unknown play would would sit well with three classics? He would have been better putting "Steptoe and Son: The Musical" starring Ian McKellen into this season. Perhaps Jude Law's Hamlet can end the season on a high, at least I know the play's good.
http://www.donmarwestend.com/madame_de_sade
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