A brilliantly enjoyable story told with humour, heart, and true artistry, as 19th-century novelist George Sand grapples with gender and identity both in life and on paper.
George, a new play written by Léa des Garets and directed by Rute Costa, is a brilliantly imaginative dive into the world of George Sand. In real life, Sand was a 19th-century French novelist who held her own with the likes of Victor Hugo and Honoré de Balzac, but her fame has often been overlooked since then. In a dreamlike opening sequence, balletic movement combines with immersive sound design to develop an echoing world of socialites, reviewers, and opinionated critics, weaving together the narratives and questions swirling around George’s reputation. Every voice has an opinion on George’s penchants for masculine clothing and numerous lovers, but most agree that her talent is undeniable. This external world then shifts seamlessly into a more intimate space, in which we see George at ease and in love – the public figure’s private life.
As the narrative begins, we meet George searching for ideas for a new show; she is portrayed with poise and sincerity by writer, des Garets. George bounces ideas off one of her lovers – the French actress Marie Dorval. Iniki Mariano as Marie feels perfectly at home in the 19th century. Mariano brings a dancer-like grace and quick wit to Marie, who serves as an excellent foil to George’s literary (and at times melancholy) energy, although their strong wills can cause friction. George soon receives a letter from her editor in Paris, insisting that she begin a new project. We meet the editor, played by Conor Dumbrell, as he brings this letter to life with a masterclass in comic timing and intonation.
George eventually sets to work on a play script, crafting a story about Gabriel, a young person ‘born with a woman’s sex’ but raised as a man in Renaissance Italy. As Marie and George construct this plot, des Garets appears as Gabriel in imagined scenes, and Mariano and Dumbrell populate Gabriel’s world with a variety of characters. Each character has an instantly recognisable silhouette, whether through the actors’ physicality or Delyth Evans’s costumes, and Dumbrell, in particular, exhibits a talent for varied voices and mannerisms. The fairy tale villain in Gabriel’s world (his scheming grandfather) only appears as a looming silhouette, illuminated by Marie Colahan’s lighting to appear as a chilling figure projected onto Delyth Evans’s flowing fabric sets. Jamie Lu’s superb sound design creates uneasy undertones in tenser scenes and offers a brighter tone during several creative movement sequences which pass time or bring the play to a new setting.
Throughout the show, fashion becomes a tool to explore questions of gender and identity – how do one’s clothes affect or reflect your sense of self? As the play opens on the arrival of George’s new jacket, she praises the freedom that men’s clothing brings her; in dresses she was always observed and sheltered, while in trousers she can explore more freely. This scene sets the tone for the rest of the piece in several ways. First, each of the three actors often switch characters by changing their jacket – Evans’s attractive and effective costume design allows the characters to shift seamlessly between George’s world in 19th-century France and Gabriel’s imagined world in 17th-century Italy. This also sets the stage for George’s own questions, and the conflict between how free she feels in these clothes and others’ perceptions that she is unladylike, or even placing herself above other women. Even in the setting of Gabriel, two centuries before George’s time, there were people choosing masculine clothing over dresses both on the page, as characters assumed disguises, and in real life, as many 17th-century figures broke gendered fashion rules, yet George still faced the same deep prejudices that often continue today. The freedom and anonymity that George feels in men’s clothing are also paralleled in her desire to be judged not as a ‘lady who writes’ but simply as a writer. Her editor minimises Gabriel as just another lady’s play about a woman disguised as a man, and George is forced to fight both for a deeper understanding of Gabriel’s character and for her work to be seen as a serious contribution to the literary world.
Cameos from Frederic Chopin and Eugène Delacroix – some of George’s most famous lovers – serve to highlight how George was successful enough to support artists like Chopin at times, and yet how much her legacy has fallen into the shadow of the men in her life despite her immense talent and popularity. The piece ends with an intimate scene as George imagines a conversation with Gabriel; all the other voices are quiet in this moment, and we see only George with the invisible yet palpable presence of this character yearning to be brought to life. Just as Gabriel is the beating heart of his play, so too George Sand is the beating heart in this work. Des Garets states that they “found a soul sister” while researching this piece, and their passion, empathy, and artistry bring an incredible heartfelt feeling to the production. From breathtakingly funny highs to heart-wrenching lows, George is a must-see on every front.
George is currently running at the Omnibus Theatre in Clapham until 14 July, with performances Tuesdays to Saturdays at 7:30 PM and Sundays at 4:00 PM. The performance on 3 July will be followed by a Q&A session with cast and creatives.