{"id":680,"date":"2017-05-06T07:27:41","date_gmt":"2017-05-06T07:27:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/2017\/05\/06\/httptheblurb-com-aureviewslamante-anglaise-fortyfivedownstairs-theatre-review\/"},"modified":"2017-05-06T07:27:41","modified_gmt":"2017-05-06T07:27:41","slug":"httptheblurb-com-aureviewslamante-anglaise-fortyfivedownstairs-theatre-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/httptheblurb-com-aureviewslamante-anglaise-fortyfivedownstairs-theatre-review\/","title":{"rendered":"L\u2019amante Anglaise (fortyfivedownstairs) – theatre review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two actors – presumably in their 60s – dressed in dark attire, sitting on fixed chairs about five metres apart, one questioning the other and then the roles are reversed \u2026 for 100 minutes without interval. No set. The audience on tiered seating on either side. Hardly what you may imagine could lead to riveting and dramatic theatre, but the power is in the brilliant writing and acting, which had me hanging on every word.<\/p>\n

\"Lamante-Anglaise-01\"L\u2019amante Anglaise<\/em> is a brutal murder mystery and the question is why the perpetrator \u2013 who dobbed herself in \u2013 did what she did, that is killed her deaf and mute cousin who had lived with her and her husband for more than 20 years. Not only did she do so, but she dismembered the corpse and disposed of the parts by dropping them from a rail viaduct onto passing freight trains \u2026 all, except the head, which still hasn\u2019t been recovered. All this took place in a small town in France.<\/p>\n

L\u2019amante anglaise<\/i> was published in 1967 as a novella consisting of three interviews, but playwright Marguerite Duras (1914-1996) soon created this theatre adaptation, which was first presented in 1968. According to director Laurence Strangio, the grisly material \u2013 based on real events that took place in 1949 \u2013 was originally explored in a more naturalistic play, The viaducts of Seine-et-Oise<\/i> (1958). Duras was apparently dissatisfied with the conventional form of the earlier work and hence created her own. L\u2019amante anglaise<\/i> is a poignant and emotionally powerful\u00a0portrait of lost passion and a life lived inside one\u2019s own head.<\/p>\n

Pierre Lannes (Robert Meldrum) is controlled, detached and unemotional when questioned about whether or not he aided his wife, Claire (Jillian Murray), in perpetrating the heinous crime. He acknowledges that he once longed for her, but that was many years ago, that they led ostensibly separate lives and that he had taken a number of lovers. She \u2013 accepting but hardly apologetic \u2013 had been in love with a policeman before she met him and now cared for a labourer. She spent most of her time absorbed in her own thoughts in the garden of their home.<\/p>\n

For her part Marie-Therese Bousquet, the deaf and mute cousin whom we never meet, cooked and kept house for the Lannes. All we learn from Claire is that Marie-Therese was overweight and she couldn\u2019t stomach Marie-Therese\u2019s stew, which was a favourite of her husband. The play is broadly split into two halves after an initial matter of fact description of the crime and the confession.<\/p>\n

\"Lamante-Anglaise-02\"I learnt far more in the first 50 minutes than I did thereafter, save to form the view that Claire Lannes was clearly mad. It appeared that her life wouldn\u2019t change much, if at all, in prison, save for the fact that she would be denied access to her place of retreat and respite \u2013 her precious garden. I was left somewhat disappointed that more wasn\u2019t unearthed when Claire was being quizzed, but even her inquisitor appeared to lose interest. Then again, when one is of unsound mind, what sense can others make of their actions and reactions? So, if you are looking for a neat explanation of events that took place, you are in the wrong place.<\/p>\n

However, if you want insight into the human condition, a look into how the inexpressible can still find voice, then look no further than L\u2019amante anglais. <\/i>Jillian Murray, the 2015 Green Room Award recipient for Best Female Performer in Independent Theatre for this role, and Robert Meldrum are equally superb in this compelling two-hander. Having played two sold out seasons at La Mama, it is now at fortyfive downstairs, 45 Flinders Lane, until 3rd July, presented in association with La Mama.<\/p>\n

Alex First<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two actors – presumably in their 60s – dressed in dark attire, sitting on fixed chairs about five metres apart, one questioning the other and then the roles are reversed \u2026 for 100 minutes without interval. No set. The audience on tiered seating on either side. Hardly what you may imagine could lead to riveting…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[530,412,2],"class_list":["post-680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-dialogue","tag-fortyfivedownstairs","tag-post_tag"],"yoast_head":"\nL\u2019amante Anglaise (fortyfivedownstairs) - theatre review -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/httptheblurb-com-aureviewslamante-anglaise-fortyfivedownstairs-theatre-review\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"L\u2019amante Anglaise (fortyfivedownstairs) - theatre review -\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Two actors – presumably in their 60s – dressed in dark attire, sitting on fixed chairs about five metres apart, one questioning the other and then the roles are reversed \u2026 for 100 minutes without interval. 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When it affects one\u2019s nearest and dearest it is particularly harrowing. What if inside two years both your spouse of nearly four decades and adult child pass away? How would\/could you handle that? 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Despite being diagnosed with Hodgkin\u2019s lymphoma at age 27, given a year to live and told to put her house in order, she continued to do things her way. She thumbed her nose at the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Theatre"","block_context":{"text":"Theatre","link":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/category\/theatre\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/rsz_1dsc_6139_crop_300dpi.jpg?fit=800%2C732&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/rsz_1dsc_6139_crop_300dpi.jpg?fit=800%2C732&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/rsz_1dsc_6139_crop_300dpi.jpg?fit=800%2C732&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/rsz_1dsc_6139_crop_300dpi.jpg?fit=800%2C732&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13517,"url":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/the-curtain-fortyfivedownstairs-theatre-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":680,"position":5},"title":"The Curtain (fortyfivedownstairs) – theatre review","author":"Alex First","date":"February 28, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"A slow moving, wordy piece about loneliness, fragility and connection, I can\u2019t say The Curtain lit up my life. Set in a small country town, Ada Munroe (Milijana \u010can\u010dar) is a widow. She lost her husband John some time ago and on the anniversary of his passing each year she\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Theatre"","block_context":{"text":"Theatre","link":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/category\/theatre\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/rsz_the_curtain_3.jpg?fit=800%2C534&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/rsz_the_curtain_3.jpg?fit=800%2C534&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/rsz_the_curtain_3.jpg?fit=800%2C534&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/rsz_the_curtain_3.jpg?fit=800%2C534&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}