Fanny ★★★ - The Recs

How do you take the serious, true story of an underappreciated 19th-century female German composer and turn it into a rollicking musical farce? RJG Productions’ comic play by actor and writer Calum Finlay attempts to do this at London’s King’s Head Theatre (KHT) this autumn.

Following the show’s development performances at The Watermill Theatre in Newbury last year, a group of collaborators (including lead actor Charlie Russell, best known for her work with Mischief, and director Katie-Ann McDonough) has brought a changed production to this new venue. The KHT used to be situated in the pub next door but has recently moved into a dedicated space with seating for 200 people and is finding its feet. The theatre team prides itself on bringing creative, diverse and challenging works to audiences and ticket prices to suit all pockets.

Search any classical music reference site, and the story of Fanny Mendelssohn describes a woman who was encouraged to study piano and composition because she was a child from a wealthy German family. It will also reference how close she was to her younger brother, Felix, and how they were creative and talented equals. Only when she became an adult did it become clear that her family continued to encourage Felix in his musical endeavours but pushed Fanny towards the more traditional female role of wife and homemaker. Calum Finlay has taken this story and developed it with the actors, director and producer (Rebecca Gwyther), alongside insights from The Watermill’s audiences last year.

The play opens to the sound of music, and a piano dominates the small performance area in front of the audience. It immediately sets up the premise that Fanny had an internal music voice and uses that to express her desires, talents and ambitions within the claustrophobic environment of her upbringing. This allusion then allows the play the room it needs to explore the farcical situations that Fanny’s creative mind conjures up as she imagines an alternative and spirited life for herself and those around her.

It is clear that Charlie Russell’s experience in co-founding and working as part of Mischief (The Comedy About Spies, Groan Ups, The Play That Goes Wrong) has had a big influence on the direction this play takes its audience. Charlie Russell’s energy drives both the tone and narrative. It feels as if she has put a lot of herself into the role of Fanny Mendelssohn, and it provides her the confidence to deal with her audience, even when things don’t go according to plan on the night. She gives a lively, funny performance throughout, even during the slightly odd section of audience participation that pops up after the interval. Daniel Abbott (playing brother Felix) and Riad Richie (playing future husband Wilhelm) offer solid, comedic support, as do the exaggerated figures of her remaining family (Kim Ismay as her role-model mother, Jeremy Lloyd as her less-talented other brother and Danielle Phillips as manic sister Rebecka). The intricate wordplay of puns and poems within the script is deftly handled by the ensemble, but tonally the narrative is confusing as it moves between the serious and the absurd. The artistic devices used to get from the story into the farce are often jarring.

Now to the elephant in the room. The King’s Head Theatre’s artistic direction is admirable, but the physical space is not ideal for performances that rely on visual as well as linguistic humour. Fanny, particularly in the second half, has a lot of gags that depend on its audience being able to see what is happening below the actors’ heads. With a full auditorium, it is not possible to see any of the action from the rear half of the seats because light doesn’t bend around the heads of those in front and the production doesn’t use raised staging. Most of the action happens at the front of a small, cramped area. If you are seated at the back, the best view you’ll get is in the final scene when Fanny stands on the piano. So much of the performance was lost that it’s difficult to comment on it, other than to write that the laughter from those at the front implied that Fanny was funny.

Fanny is an exuberant and enjoyable comic spin on the life of a talented female musician who stayed in the shadow of her famous brother during her short lifetime, but the audience may be sadly let down by the poor sightlines in the theatre.