The Countess

Synopsis

In 1853 the celebrated art critic John Ruskin, his wife Effie, and the Pre-Raphaelite painter John Everett Millais depart in high spirits for the Scottish Highlands. When they return four months later, London is already beginning to whisper of the woman one man calls mad, and the other... The Countess. Gregory Murphy's play is based on one of the most notorious scandals of the Victorian age.

Our Review:

7 June 2005

Gregory Murphy’s play, The Countess, was well received in the US, playing for 634 performances. I fear, however, it will fare less well in the West End.

I suspect American audiences were charmed by the piece’s strange British world, which occupies a middle ground between the catty drawing rooms of Oscar Wilde and the tightly laced restricted passion of EM Forster. This faux ‘Englishness’ probably won't appeal to a British audience, though the central performance - which is the production’s saving grace - should.

Effie, the Countess of the title, actually existed. She was married to the essayist and orator John Ruskin, and the events of the play surround several months in the 1850s, which the couple spent in Scotland, accompanied by the artist John Everett Millais. Ruskin was a huge fan of Millais’ work, and Millais was to paint him. Over the space of the play, we witness the couple’s dysfunctional relationship - what Ruskin refers to as Effie’s ‘...

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Latest User Review

84.9.16.24) - 21 June 2005:

I saw this play yesterday and truly enjoyed it. I was captivated from beginning to end. Great acting throughout!...

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