June 8, 2022
By Neal Newman
If you are, like me, a theatre fan who enjoys seeing lost classics from the historical past (think EAST LYNN or FRANCESCA DA RIMINI), hurry down to the Quintessence Theater Group to catch the 1852 Dumas blockbuster CAMILLE. The production isn’t perfect, but bravura performances from the two leads make this a worthwhile endeavor.
Dumas fils wrote the novel LA DAME AUX CAMELLIAS after having an affair with a famous courtesan who died at the age of 22. The play became a monster hit later, featuring such theater legends as Elenora Duse and Sara Bernhardt. The story tells of Armand, a young nobleman of mid-nineteenth-century Paris, who falls in love with the famous lady, Camille, and she with him. Her passion causes her to reform, but their planned marriage is thwarted by a visit from Armand’s father, who says the family cannot survive such a disgrace. She returns to her bawdy lifestyle leaving Armand ignorant and bitter.
The famous story has been retold countless times, notably in the Verdi opera LA TRAVIATA and the Garbo film CAMILLE.
The author throws some problematic challenges to modern actors. When Sarah Bernhardt played the role, acting was a cold, technical art devoid of modern emoting. Modern audiences expect something different. There are also reams of dialogue and monologues that would challenge the best Shakespeareans in Matilda Heron’s 1857 translation. (No, the original French isn’t any better.) The two leading performers carry it off easily while some of the supporting cast struggle with the language and the demands of portraying the French upper class.
The covid crisis caused Quintessence to lose all the scheduled previews, and performance jitters filled the first 10 minutes. Still, with the entrance of Dax Richardson as Armand, everything calmed down, and the advantages of the in-the-round intimate staging began to emerge. Richardson catches all the aspects of his character. He is believable as the naive young man who meets the famous Camille and as the lovestruck fiancé. When she rejects him, he returns to Paris with well-portrayed righteous rage. Some of the dialogue is purple, and many of the scenes are overlong by modern standards. But Richardson’s performance conquers all. He is also exceptionally handsome.
Bille Wyatt is equally abetted as Camille, the beautiful courtesan who loses everything for love and gets one of theater history’s great death scenes. Wyatt is convincing as a French lady, and plays her scenes with Armand with touching and finally wrenching devotion. She is the STAR. The supporting cast has some bright spots. Liam Mulshine and Deanna S. Wright lighten the proceedings with a quick turn with a comic line, while Julia Sims, Maya Smoot, and Kahula A. Wyatt provide gravitas as Camille’s few friends.
The play is presented in repertory with FLYIN’ WEST telling the tale of black women in the old West. The color-blind casting gives CAMILLE a delightfully BRIDGERTON appearance.
The director, Steven Anthony Wright, ably abetted by set and lighting designer Brian Sidney Bembridge, charmingly stage the play in the round, a format Dumas fils never contemplated. The lighting highlights the well-staged action, while the music by Tom Carman adds a practical modern touch. The ladies’ costumes are sumptuous (designed by Anna Sorrentino), but why would Armand appear in a lady’s drawing-room in shirtsleeves with a modern wristwatch?
Some exciting differences appear for those accustomed to the opera and the film. In the opera, Camille is discovered in an alluring costume consuming magnums of champagne. There is no doubt that this person lives only for today. Later, when she falls in love, she changes to a proper country outfit fit for Armand’s world. This discovery is a shock, but in the play, we only see the more sedate Camille, with the background filled with pages of tedious illustrative exposition. As modern prlawyights say, “Show it. Don’t talk about it.”
Fans of the movie will remember Lionel Barrymore and Henry Daniell as the father and the aristocratic suitor. These roles were expanded in the film and seem now sadly underwritten in the original. Hopefully, the actors, Phillip Brown as the father and Lee Thomas Cortopassi as the aristocrat, can find ways to bring more subtlety and vocal variety to these roles.
Can we expect the audience to dissolve into sobs at the tragic ending? Sorry, but the world Dumas fils lived in is gone. Today, having a good time is not frowned upon, and hereditary noblemen are not treated as gods. But if you can put yourself into the mindset of the audience of 1850s Paris, you will be rewarded.
Running Time: 2 hours and 30 minutes with intermission
Camille plays through June 26, 2022, in repertory with Flyn’ West at the Quintessence Theatre Group, performing at The Sedgwick Theater – 7137 Germantown Avenue (Mount Airy), in Philadelphia, PA, for tickets call (215) 987-4450, or visit quintessencetheatre.org.