The Upcoming
  • Culture
    • Art
    • Cinema & Tv
      • Movie reviews
      • Film festivals
      • Shows
    • Food & Drinks
      • News & Features
      • Restaurant & bar reviews
      • Interviews & Recipes
    • Literature
    • Music
      • Live music
    • Theatre
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
  • What’s On
    • Art exhibitions
    • Theatre shows
  • Tickets
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Interviews
  • Competitions
  • Special events
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureTheatre

Queen of the Mist at Charing Cross Theatre

Queen of the Mist at Charing Cross Theatre | Theatre review
20 August 2019
Lora Maslenitsyna
Avatar
Lora Maslenitsyna
20 August 2019

Queen of the Mist explores the anxiety of wanting to be remembered and whether people have any influence over their destiny. This is a story about a woman who throws herself up against her greatest fears and grapples with desire for fame, power and greatness.

The play is based on the true story of Anna Edson Taylor, who in 1901 at 63 years old became the first person to survive a trip over Niagara Falls in a barrel of her own design. Through the palpitating physicality of the instruments’ swell, the production comes alive to envelop theatregoers in the immensity of the Falls and Anna’s ambition. The open-ended stage at Charing Cross Theatre elongates the actors’ movements in a way that allows them to reach out to the audience by melting together time and place. Their harmony of voices rise and fall with the characters’ hopes and fears and paint a picture of a time in history fraught with uncertainty. In particular, Trudi Camilleri shines as Anna with the resounding timbre of her voice.

However, a few moments in the piece also portray desperate attempts at humour through sexist punchlines. They seem out of place in this production that so loftily raises the quest of women’s liberation. When delivered as jokes for the audience, these lines do not reveal the plight of women to be recognised on equal terms as men, or the complexity of the character who speaks them. Instead, these throw-away lines undercut the play’s repeated standpoint in favour of uplifting women from the social and cultural norms that subjugate them. It’s as if all of Anna’s worries, fears and pride dissipate into the mist.

At first, the production’s ambition exceeds the theatre’s modest stage, but by the end, falters by shallow character exposition. Apart from the sometimes tactless dialogue, Queen of the Mist brings an intricate musical composition to life in a humanising story of self-determination.

★★★★★

Lora Maslenitsyna
Photo: Stephen Russell

Queen of the Mist is at Charing Cross Theatre from 15th August until 5th October 2019. Book your tickets here.

Watch the trailer for Queen of the Mist here:

Related Itemsreview

More in Theatre

Redemption Room at Secret Theatre Online

★★★★★
Michael Higgs
Read More

24, 23, 22 at Chronic Insanity Online

★★★★★
Samuel Nicholls
Read More

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice at Southwark Playhouse Online

★★★★★
Michael Higgs
Read More

Typical at Soho Theatre

★★★★★
Ella Satin
Read More

Grimm Tales for Fragile Times and Broken People

★★★★★
Emma-Jane Betts
Read More

Gatsby at Cadogan Hall: An interview with Jodie Steele and Ross William Wild

Michael Higgs
Read More

Living Record Festival: Ain’t No Female Romeo

★★★★★
Brooke Snowe
Read More

West End Musical Drive In Online

★★★★★
James Humphrey
Read More

Hymn at the Almeida Theatre Online

★★★★★
Michael Higgs
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Theatre review

Lora Maslenitsyna

Queen of the Mist

★★★★★

Dates

15th August - 5th October 2019

Price

From £11.25

BUY TICKETS

Links & directions

TwitterInstagramFacebookWebsiteMap

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Creation Stories
    ★★★★★
    Film festivals
  • Detroit Stories – Alice Cooper
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Judas and the Black Messiah
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Gatsby at Cadogan Hall: An interview with Jodie Steele and Ross William Wild
    Theatre
  • Laura Mvula – Under a Pink Moon
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Back to the Wharf
    ★★★★★
    Film festivals
  • I’m Your Man (Ich bin dein Mensch)
    ★★★★★
    Berlinale
  • We (Nous)
    ★★★★★
    Berlinale
  • Language Lessons
    ★★★★★
    Berlinale
  • Moon, 66 Questions
    ★★★★★
    Berlinale
  • We (Nous)
    ★★★★★
    Berlinale
  • Bicep at Saatchi Gallery Online
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • The Winter Lake
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Spotlight: Lauren Everet and Soup Kitchen London, striving for food security and social equality
    Food & Drinks
  • Da Capo
    ★★★★★
    Film festivals
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

“This festival is making fringe spaces more accessible and readdressing the representation of artists”: Festival curators Steven Kavuma and Sophia Tassew discuss This Is Black
The Doctor at Almeida Theatre | Theatre review