We all have our assumptions about Marie Antoinette’s life. She was a tone deaf rich woman who only made it to power because of privilege and beauty. However, the facts are stubborn things. Marie is not accused in history of outright conscious manipulation of her people, rather a profound ignorance of the world beyond her “gilt-edged mirrors,” an ignorance that fueled an uprising over her extravagances while her people starved. This ignorance, so goes the fables, lead to her beheading. Adjmi does not side with the mythos of Marie Antoinette. Instead, he holds a mirror up to modern society and asks us to look at how we build celebrity and ultimately crush them.
I don’t see the play as a “period costume drama.” Rather an instrument to explore how myth is created, how fake news can spread and what we do to women of power. The most famous quote attributed to her being “Let them eat cake.” Marie never spoke these word, instead they were attributed to her by Robespierre at the time. However, he spoke the same phrase of the previous regime in France. As he was leading a revolution on a politically philosophical message, he employed the print news to use cartoons of Marie Antoinette to make lurid assertions about her. Cartoons, poems and lymerics hinted at disgusting practices. Those included: she was a spy for Austria; she was single handedly running the country; none of her children were begot by her husband; she had stolen a necklace that today would be worth 3 million dollars today; she was really a lesbian and the lies go on and on...
At the heart of Adjmi’s play is a philosophical investigation. What does it truly mean to live as a spectacle? Can you even have intimacy when your life is public consumption? These questions aren’t answered. Ultimately, it is up to the audience and society to decipher for themselves what truth is and what celebrity means.
The design for the production emphasizes the immediacy of now present in this story. The balloons representing a party atmosphere that began long before Marie made her way to France at 14 years of age. The nods to other notable “vapid” heroines are referenced like Cher from the film Clueless. What we are left with is a glaring lie: “Let them eat cake,” and you the audience must decide if you will take a bite.
Enjoy the show!
M. Griffin
