FOUR STARS

 

It says much for the compelling interest of Rory Fellowes’s A Victorian Eye that straight after seeing it I went on to Amazon to order a copy of the book that had supplied much of the information for what is depicted on stage.

This is Simon Reynolds’s biography of William Blake Richmond, the fascinating figure presented in the one-man play. An artist of world renown in his day (1842-1921) — and Oxford’s Slade Professor of Art in succession to his friend John Ruskin — he is now rather a forgotten figure. Fellowes’s work, one hopes, might assist in his rehabilitation.

In a tour-de-force performance by Nigel Dunbar, under director Maureen Payne-Hahner, we see the artist late in life, packing away paintings and possessions in his Chiswick home. His first remarks are addressed to an unseen helper so that, once he is speaking, it seems entirely natural that he should continue his discourse with us.

He talks with passion of the principles that guided his artistic life: a reverence for the Old Masters, the importance of draughtsmanship, the supremacy of practice over theory. Fully revealed, too, is his contempt for the modern — “Post-Impressionism!” he spits with derision — which, of course, put him at odds with a changed world.

Of the sadnesses in his life we learn much (or as much as can be revealed in a little over a hour). These included the loss of both his first wife Charlotte and a child.

From his amazing gallery of friends and acquaintances we hear of, among others, Gladstone, Prince Bismarck and Robert Browning. Many became subjects of his portraits, as did Lewis Carroll’s Alice (Liddell), the daughter of the Dean of Christ Church, who was painted with her sister. Technical detail is expertly conveyed, including that concerned with his commission to supply mosaics in St Paul’s Cathedral, devoted work which occupied him for 13 years.

This is the first play for the London stage by Mr Fellowes, the brother of Downton Abbey creator Julian. As interpreted by Mr Dunbar, it suggests that he is taking well to the family ‘trade’.

 

Jermyn Street Theatre, London
Until August 17
Tickets: 020 7287 2875