SARAH Quand Même

A little gem of a production is tucked away upstairs in a cosy theatre on Oxford Street, but alas just for a few days.

The audience waits in the sumptuously upholstered green room wine bar, then enters the small black box theatre for an audience with actress Sarah Bernhardt.

A lush French couch, dressing room table with lights and an elegant screen are the bones of the set which Susie Lindeman floats around like a butterfly in the one act monologue.

SARAH Quand Même, which translates to Sarah despite all, is based on the life of the French superstar who died 100 years ago.

The short season has been squeezed in after the production was honoured with a staging in Paris itself, alongside an exhibition titled “Sarah Bernhardt: Et la femme Créa la Star”.

Susie Lindeman, as the writer and actor, does not so much perform the role, but moreso inhabits the very core of the character.

Her French accent is lush and she shimmers across the stage luminous and large.

The play opens with Sarah rehearsing for a show, when her granddaughter asks her for a story.

She tells her that as child she wanted to be a nun, even though she was Jewish. Aside from that, Sarah Bernhardt was too naughty for the strictures of religion.

An early anecdote was about the time a woman in the audience at a performance offended her by wearing the same dress. So, she took revenge by becoming the lover of the woman’s partner.

There is drama aplenty behind the scenes as she battles health scares and terrible men, while blazing a path across the stage of Europe and the United States.

The diva came to Australia once and this is referenced (kind of) with the discussion of a Koala.

The clever design of the set (Justin Nardella), intriguing lighting (Martin Kinnane) and a gorgeous dress (Lorraine Foster) also help set the tone.

The black box theatre is on the warm side and there was blessed relief when the air conditioning came on. A few more interludes of music would have been nice.

But overall, it was a fascinating insight into a superstar.

David Spicer