In the play “Marie Antoinette,” written by David Adjmi and directed by Le’Mil Eiland, Alexis Primus takes on the role of Marie, the pompous, spoiled, and ignorant queen of France. I wasn’t originally going to discuss the lead character, however as I analyze Alexis’s character with greater thought, the more impressed I became. This play encourages people to view Marie from a new perspective, not only exposing Marie’s superfluous and greedy nature but also the misunderstanding and internal struggles she battles with that evolve from such a young age. Though some scenes were not as believable as others, I think that Alexis gave an excellent overall performance playing the role of Marie Antoinette. Through her facial expressions, vocal tones
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In the beginning scenes, Alexis plays a vain, superficial character who overindulges herself in luxuries. Her gait is stiff, her shoulders pushed back, and her nose held high. From her walk alone, you can see the amount of self-importance this character attributes to herself. She glides elegantly across the stage-runway but you can sense her discomfort. She takes heavy steps (probably because of her 6 inch heels) but still remains poised. When she sits she lowers herself slowly and steadily and folds in her dress to retain her grace and straight posture. When she is being spoken to, she fiddles with and examines all her jewels, showing her disinterest in others and her obsession with money. In the garden scene, she pets the sheep very daintily, expressing her grandiose view of herself with disgust in those beneath her. I thought this scene was funny, in that it exposed her hypocrisy as she couldn’t stop talking about her love for nature but then is also too good to pet an animal. The second half …show more content…
Marie struggled greatly with adapting to the intense, public, royal life. Later in the play it is revealed that Marie’s marriage was arranged by her mother at the young age of 14. She was thrown into this life with little guidance and a lot of pressure where one can argue that she didn’t know any better. Marie also expresses the constant need to compete with everyone as the queen, even her own mother. The public and royal people are all pushing her to have a child, yet no one understands the family issues Louis and Marie have behind closed doors. On top of that, Marie must deal with so much hatred from the public and the constant spread of vulgar rumors about herself. These pressures take a psychological toll on Marie and she struggles internally in trying to handle all these things. Perhaps she uses money and overindulgence to cope with these immense burdens laid upon
In the beginning scenes, Alexis plays a vain, superficial character who overindulges herself in luxuries. Her gait is stiff, her shoulders pushed back, and her nose held high. From her walk alone, you can see the amount of self-importance this character attributes to herself. She glides elegantly across the stage-runway but you can sense her discomfort. She takes heavy steps (probably because of her 6 inch heels) but still remains poised. When she sits she lowers herself slowly and steadily and folds in her dress to retain her grace and straight posture. When she is being spoken to, she fiddles with and examines all her jewels, showing her disinterest in others and her obsession with money. In the garden scene, she pets the sheep very daintily, expressing her grandiose view of herself with disgust in those beneath her. I thought this scene was funny, in that it exposed her hypocrisy as she couldn’t stop talking about her love for nature but then is also too good to pet an animal. The second half …show more content…
Marie struggled greatly with adapting to the intense, public, royal life. Later in the play it is revealed that Marie’s marriage was arranged by her mother at the young age of 14. She was thrown into this life with little guidance and a lot of pressure where one can argue that she didn’t know any better. Marie also expresses the constant need to compete with everyone as the queen, even her own mother. The public and royal people are all pushing her to have a child, yet no one understands the family issues Louis and Marie have behind closed doors. On top of that, Marie must deal with so much hatred from the public and the constant spread of vulgar rumors about herself. These pressures take a psychological toll on Marie and she struggles internally in trying to handle all these things. Perhaps she uses money and overindulgence to cope with these immense burdens laid upon