Playwright: Josef Bush
At: Azusa Productions at the Heartland Studio, 7016 N. Glenwood Ave.
Phone: (312) 409-4207; $12-$15
Runs through: Feb. 8
The office of consort to the Big Boss—the King, the Emperor, the President—carries with it a certain measure of power, to be sure, but the risks can be far greater. Marie Antoinette was a young Austrian princess married to an old French monarch in order to seal a pact between the two countries. The brokers of this loveless match, however, little suspected that a revolution would soon topple Louis XVI from his throne and with him, his pretty, privileged, prodigal wife.
French Gray introduces us to the woman 'born to glory,' now called simply the 'Widow Capet' as she shivers in her prison cell on the eve of her execution, her prayers bedeviled by lice and rats. But despair at her humiliation soon gives way to indignation at its perceived injustice. In a mixture of pride and pique, she vows to be 'eloquent' in her final words to the world.
And eloquent she proceeds to be, vilifying her husband's sexual clumsiness with defiant vulgarity and defending her costly amusements with protests of 'One HAS to pass the time!' With catty glee, she recalls snubbing her lessers at court, but resents the rumors of her subjects frightening their children with admonitions of 'Now be good, or the Austrian Woman will come and get you!' 'What could I do?' she demands of her absent accusers, audaciously mocking even her confessor, until—on the last morning she will ever see—her regal spirit is restored and she announces to the guards come to lead her to the guillotine, 'The Queen is Ready!'
However florid author Josef Bush's language, the cavalcade of personalities invoked during the course of his one-woman show—running time, a brief 45 minutes—presents a formidable challenge for the player essaying it (compounded in this Azusa production by its staging in one of the storefront circuit's typically underheated rooms). Under the direction of Adam Burke, however, veteran character-actress Maggie Speer carries it off with the grace and dignity befitting her persona. Employing merely a change of posture or vocal inflection, she shifts identity so completely that we leave almost convinced that we have seen not one, but several, actors on the stage that evening.