A challenging work of emotional agility set against a backdrop political upheaval.

Red Sitch Actors Theatre, Melbourne
March 19, 2016

Those who like their theatre to be a quick fix of light entertainment might lose patience with the latest production of Red Stitch Theatre’s 2016 season, but for those willing to stay the course, this Australian premiere of Abi Morgan’s Splendour pays dividends. This is a smartly staged, sharply drawn production that quietly seeps into the mind of an audience, keeping our neurones firing long after the final scene.

Today, British playwright Abi Morgan is a seasoned pro, working largely in film and television: among her long list of TV and movie credits is the Margaret Thatcher biopic, The Iron Lady, starring Meryl Streep and the recent hit film Suffragette also starring Streep alongside Carrie Mulligan and Helena Bonham Carter. Written in 2000, Splendour is one of Morgan’s early theatre works, but it reveals an enduring fascination, mirrored in her more recent screen successes, with the fickle dynamics of power and the people (often women) behind the politics.

Set in the presidential palace of some unidentified Balkan state, Micheleine (Belinda McClory) is the first...