• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • HOME
  • NEWS+OPINIONS
    • NEWS TO US
    • COLUMNS
      • APPARENT HORIZON
      • DEAR READER
      • Close
    • LONGFORM FEATURES
    • OPINIONS
    • EDITORIAL
    • Close
  • ARTS+ENTERTAINMENT
    • FILM
    • MUSIC
    • COMEDY
    • PERFORMING ARTS
    • VISUAL ARTS
    • Close
  • DINING+DRINKING
    • EATS
    • SIPS
    • BOSTON BETTER BEER BUREAU
    • Close
  • LIFESTYLE
    • CANNABIS
      • TALKING JOINTS MEMO
      • Close
    • WELLNESS
    • GTFO
    • Close
  • STUFF TO DO
  • TICKETS
  • ABOUT US
    • ABOUT
    • MASTHEAD
    • ADVERTISE
    • Close

Dig Bos

The Dig - Greater Boston's Alternative News Source

THE SALONNIÈRES AIMS FOR BITING CRITIQUE, HITS DATED COMMENTARY

Written by JACOB SCHICK Posted November 8, 2018 Filed Under: A+E, Performing Arts

Scene from The Salonnieres. Photo by Nile Scott Studios.
Scene from The Salonnières. Photo by Nile Scott Studios.

 

★★☆☆☆

 

It’s easy to see what the set of The Salonnières is trying to do. It’s an opulent room filled with ornate couches and chairs—Renaissance paintings hung on the walls. But the most striking aspect of this set, designed by Katy Monthei, is its boundaries. The room is set on a raised stage and walled by thin gold bars rising out of the floor to meet at a point on the top. It looks like a birdcage at the Greater Boston Stage Company.

 

And when the Liz Duffy Adams’ play—directed by Weylin Simes—begins to hit its stride, it’s clear that The Salonnières is trying to use this set to its symbolic advantage. Three aristocratic women gather in a salon in pre-revolution Paris to talk and tell stories. As the backstory of these characters unfold, the stories they tell begin to take on an allegorical quality. The young and naive Madeleine de Sauveterre (Elainy Mata) has been promised to marry the much older Duc de la Beauchene (Bill Mootos). She is joined by Henriette, the Comtesse de Mare (Laura Latreille) and Gabrielle, the Marquise D’Aulney (Sarah Newhouse). The two older and more experienced women seek to guide her through their stories—often featuring a princess and a beast (or at least a prince who acts like one).

 

Here is when The Salonnières begins to come together. The play gets to toy with the ideas of fairy tales while acting one out itself; it can make what seem to be modern feminist critiques through the lens of 18th-century France; and it can wax poetic on class differences. These women, especially Francoise the maid (Lisa Joyce), are songbirds. Each is trapped in its own golden cage—surrounded by opulent scenery but unable to fly. Instead they must sing—telling stories to each other to lift their spirits and to provide entertainment.

 

But instead of a biting social commentary, The Salonnières turns into a rehash of older feminist tropes. Joyce nearly steals the show, but she and the other characters are clipped by the dialogue and the plot. It’s simply birdsong—pretty to listen to, but filled with little meaning.

 

THE SALONNIERES. THROUGH 11.11 AT GREATER BOSTON STAGE COMPANY, 395 MAIN ST., STONEHAM. GREATERBOSTONSTAGE.ORG

JACOB SCHICK
+ posts
    This author does not have any more posts.

Filed Under: A+E, Performing Arts Tagged With: Greater Boston Stage Company, Liz Duffy Adams, review, Salonnières, stoneham, theater, Weylin Simes

WHAT’S NEW

State Wire: Advocates Push For 'Tax Fairness' With Expanded Child Tax Credits

State Wire: Advocates Push For ‘Tax Fairness’ With Expanded Child Tax Credits

Mass Lawmakers Hear Testimony On Cannabis Testing, Medical Access

Mass Lawmakers Hear Testimony On Cannabis Testing, Medical Access

Massachusetts Bill, Victim Advocates Call For Coordinated Date-Rape Drug Response

Massachusetts Bill, Victim Advocates Call For Coordinated Date-Rape Drug Response

Report: Fewer Youth Transition Out Of Massachusetts Foster Care System

Report: Fewer Youth Transition Out Of Massachusetts Foster Care System

State Wire: Activists Urge Congress To Raise Debt Ceiling, Resist Spending Cuts

State Wire: Activists Urge Congress To Raise Debt Ceiling, Resist Spending Cuts

Dancing On Banana Peels: Life On Lifetime Parole In Massachusetts

Dancing On Banana Peels: Life On Lifetime Parole In Massachusetts

Primary Sidebar

AAN Wire


Footer

Social Buttons

DigBoston facebook DigBoston Twitter DigBoston Instagram

Masthead

About

Advertise

Customer Service

About Us

DigBoston is a one-stop nexus for everything worth doing or knowing in the Boston area. It's an alt-weekly, it's a website, it's an email blast, it's a twitter account, it's that cool party that you were at last night ... hey, you're reading it, so it's gotta be good. For advertising inquiries: sales@digboston.com To reach editorial (and for inquiries about internship opportunities): editorial@digboston.com