La Lupa

Synopsis

Written in 1896, La Lupa is a perceptive study of female sexuality and man's fear of it. A mother, a daughter and their lover hurtle towards tragedy.

Our Review:

23 January 2001

There’s nothing like an evening of Mediterranean sunshine and passion to lift the gloom of these cold winter days. Unfortunately, the RSC’s production of this celebrated Italian work falls a long way short of theatrical warmth and the passion is strangely lacking. Italian director Simona Gonella has created a leisurely-paced slice of Sicilian life that never really sets the pulse racing.

The story is an old slant on the eternal triangle. Pina the she-wolf of the title, is a woman on the brink of middle age scarcely able to control her passion for a much younger man. When he marries her daughter, Mara, the story moves inexorably to a tragic conclusion. Unfortunately, the principal characters don’t really work. As Pina, Brid Brennan superbly suggests the tragic aftermath of the woman’s doomed obsession, but doesn’t wholly convince as someone who’s driven by this passion in the first place.

But then, she would find it hard to be aroused by this particular Nanni Lasca. [...

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Latest User Review

USER: Whatsonstage.com - 8 May 2001:

What on earth possessed the RSC to resurrect this oddity? It was the only dud of the season, and had there been an interval I would have been more than happy to escape at half-time....

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