REVIEW
Babette’s Feast
Written by Mike Foster

​

In gentle brush strokes, the characters of Babette’s Feast are painted on a canvas of light and snow, moving through their lives. Set in a remote Norwegian community in the 1870s, two sisters Philippa and Martine, delicately played by Alex Curran and Alex Patten, live under a roof provided by their father, the Dean (played with some humour by Andy Way) whose kindly attitude is buried by austerity. When the outside world comes calling, in the shape of two suitors to the sisters, Colonel Loewenhielm, entertainingly portrayed by George Brooke-Smith and a French Opera singer, Papin, the sisters initially entertain their approaches, and then shrink back. The approach by Achille Papin, (James Ward-Parrish) was particularly touching, helping Philippa to sing to the glory of God, only to lose her through a single kiss. Physical intimacy, and displays of emotion, do not live happily in this world.

​

The Berlevaag community was shown through the ensemble cast of Phoebe Morgan, Elise Sorensen and Annabel Datiari, playing a whole range of characters from a fishmonger turned aged aunt to a court lady turned groom, to a bread seller turned suitor, all of whom expertly moving between their characters via a range of accents and costume. Into this community comes the eponymous Babette, an initially grief-stricken French emigree, convincingly portrayed by Hannah Tomlinson, bringing change to the community. Her warmth and strength of character brings the warring villagers together, firstly through resolving disputes and then through the cooking of the French feast, (a challenging event to show on stage) but the well-played generous response of the older General Loewenhielm (Andy Way), enabled the villagers to respond and finally bring the community together. An imaginary dialogue prior to the feast between Loewenhielm’s younger and older self, was movingly played by George and Andy.

​

Technically, inspiration came from the art of Anna Ancher, recently on show in the Dulwich Picture Gallery, through the clever projection of images of her pictures onto the back wall, illustrating very effectively the scenes of the play. The lighting (Elizabeth Holden) and sound (Nick Duquemin) further enhanced the tiny studio setting; sound was further enhanced by the original music compositions by Florence Shaw and the impressive feast and stage setting was managed by Judy Douglas. The flexible costuming was cleverly undertaken by Rebecca Dallaway, all of which worked together to evoke the sense of a remote Norwegian community in the 19th Century.

​

Overall the play is lovingly constructed by the director, Elizabeth Nicholson, as a kind of fairy story, told with gentle lyricism by Georgina Hickleton as the storyteller; this was a challenging play with a sparse script, which was lifted by a strong ensemble cast and supporting creatives who clearly rose to meet the challenge.

​

​