Who is Claude Cahun by D.R. Hill. Southwark Playhouse, the Little, London SE1 until 12 July 2025, 2☆☆. Review: William Russell.

Photo Credit: Paddy Gormley.

Who is Claude Cahun by D.R. Hill. Southwark Playhouse, the Little, 77 Newington Causeway,         London SE1 until 12 July 2025,

2☆☆. Review: William Russell.

“Opportunity missed.”

The story of Lucy Schwab and Suzanne Malherbe is well worth telling but this dramatisation by D.R. Hill has an appallingly slack Act One in which the cast thrash around overacting madly so that the temptation not to return after the  interval is almost overwhelming. Act Two is a tiny bit better and the glimmer of a tale worth telling about how the women, lesbian artists, living on Jersey during the war, conducted a propaganda campaign against the Nazi occupiers emerges. They were caught and sentenced to death but the sentences were not carried out and they lived for several years after the war. What went on during the occupation of the Channel Islands was very complex – the  resistance appears to have been mostly from young boys, and many inhabitants got on with life as best they could. The island authorities operated a policy of correct relations with the occupying powers but many in secret did listen to the BBC and spread the news around the communities. Some 2300 islanders, many of were Jews, were deported to concentration camps. What happened has been studied and written about and some compensation was paid to those who suffered while now the fortifications the Nazis built have been turned into a tourist attraction. There clearly is a story to be told and that of the self described sisters is one of them.  Rivkah Bunker makes a taut, highly strung Cahun and Suzanne Malhervbe creates a sensible Amelia forever trying to keep her highly strung companion under some kind of control. But the rest of the cast confronted with cliché characters more or less give up the ghost and pile on the ham with abandon wherever director David Furlong demands. A worth telling story has been appallingly told in this production although whether the story as told by D.R. Hill about Cahun and Moore, to use their other names, is worth telling also open to question. As for those stars – well the cast stayed to the end so one for that, and the two women do try to make something of their roles which is the reason for the other one. An opportunity missed if ever there was. As for it being a contribution to queer theatre, it is exactly the sort of mess that does nobody any favours.

Cast

Rivkah Bunker – Claude Cahun, nee Lucy Schwob

Amelia Armanda - Marcel Moore, nee Suzanne Malherbe

Sharon Brain – Toinette, Moore's Mama, Mrs Baudains, Defense Lawyer

Ben Bola Bohm – Georges Bataille, Maurice, Monsieur Le Brun, Mykhailo, Captain Boden 

Bethin Alderman – Andre Breton, Mr Bisson, Lohse

Creatives

Directir – David Furlong

Set Design – Juliette Demoulin

Video Designs and Mapping Artist – Jeffrey Choy

Costume Design – Carka Joy Evans

Lighting Design – Matthew Biss