Purple prose doesn’t make for the most exciting theatre. Teddy and Topsy (an Edinburgh Festival success) consists of the love letters written by the ‘creator of modern dance’, Isadora ‘Topsy’ Duncan to her lover, the theatre designer Edward Gordon ‘Teddy’ Craig. It features an accomplished performance by the actress and dancer Anna-Marie Paraskeva. However, while I don’t doubt the sincerity of the letters, most of them are fairly monotonous and limited in dramatic impact. There’s far more emphasis on Duncan’s clinginess than on any of her achievements.
Robert Shaw, who has compiled the letters and directed the show, assumes too much prior knowledge and doesn’t offer any context for the benefit of audience members who, like me, aren’t experts on Duncan and Craig. We never learn exactly why they can’t be together (presumably he’s already married?) and only get to hear from him towards the end of the show (in a pre-recorded slot by Hugh Bonneville), by which time it’s hard to care.
In her flowing Grecian-style dress, Paraskeva (who also choreographed the show) works very hard for not much reward in her portrayal of a woman who performed with great confidence, but clearly suffered from terrible mood swings and insecurity off stage. The dance routines are passionately performed and full of expressive arm work (as if always reaching out for something), effectively conveying the loneliness of a life spent moving from one anonymous hotel room to another and longing for something more secure.
An hour and a half of flowery declarations of love and devotion (“We were born in the same star!”) quickly becomes wearisome. Surely an exploration of Isadora Duncan as an artist would be more interesting than a recounting of this affair.
Written for A Younger Theatre
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