WE meet Monet in old age as he looks back on his life and artistic career in a one man show that started life in Edinburgh.
Against a backdrop of his paintings, we see works from other artists of the era, he talks about his relationship with Manet and many other figures from the art scene, but we also hear of his complicated personal life
Monet is facing surgery on his cataracts, knowing the impact it could have on his career and his productivity.
The show, written by Joan Greening and performed by Stephen Smith, is a brisk and informative monologue. It is half art lecture and half play – but at less than an hour, the audience may have felt short-changed.
The piece started life at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, but the bare stage and the lack of other characters means that it is up to Stephen Smith and the incidental music of Joseph Furey to do the theatrical heavy lifting.
The play meanders at times, looking at the often precarious financial situation of Monet’s life and changes in tastes, fashions and fortunes that meant that his water-lillies and sketches of people fell into and then out of favour.
Born in 1840, and dying in 1926, the viewpoints of Monet and his contemporaries are at odds with today’s values, and although a leading figure in the Impressionist movement where the ugly was shown as being ugly and realism was the over-riding factor, the lack of true artistic achievement in his work meant that Monet didn’t always get the recognition that he wanted or deserved.
There is a lot to like about this evening, and having seen Stephen Smith’s other work – An Evening with Edgar Allan Poe – he is a talented performer, but a Montage of Monet needs a bit more polish and perhaps a lighter set with more room given to the projections of Monet’s work for the evening to be truly memorable.