REVIEW: MAAR, DORA by Nadia Jackson at Old Red Lion Theatre 12 – 16 March 2024

‘Faye Ziegler as Maar draws the audience in’ ★★★

The name of Pablo Picasso is one which immediately summons up images of his cubist paintings, most famously, his masterpiece Guernica and perhaps his Weeping Woman painted in 1937. Far fewer people will have heard of one of his muses, Frenchwoman Dora Maar, who was the inspiration behind his crying woman series of images.   Maar was an artist in her own right and a prolific photographer hailed as one of the first women in the surrealist movement.

In the play we also learn that Maar was one of Picasso’s lovers and was treated cruelly by him. It seems that the press of the day as well as history, sees Maar largely in terms of him, rather than as a separate and extremely talented artist in her own right.

With the beauty of hindsight, today, it is easy to understand that she might have deserved to have been in the limelight herself, rather than being sidelined, always in the shadow of Picasso’s genius. The play gets off to a brilliant start and begins to air some of these ideas with great clarity.  The script is witty, and the actor (Faye Ziegler) easily draws the audience in with her snide remarks about Picasso and his cruelty and her own lack of agency.

One of the positives for the play, is that we are introduced to Maar’s work in the best possible way, so that we come to understand she was no mean talent. This section of the play resulted in very positive vibes, but as Picasso was introduced during the middle section of the play, it seemed a little less successful. 

Unfortunately, Picasso was far more two dimensional than Maar, and needed fleshing out.  The actor (Dom Thomson) was not given the benefit of the best lines, which made the character seem rather dull and lacking in interest. This flatness made it rather hard to imagine why Maar allowed herself to be entangled with him in the first place.  The spark was missing. It leaves the possibility that she stayed for the media attention rather than being swayed by Picasso as a man.     It’s always good to show rather than tell, so having Picasso make an appearance could potentially be riveting viewing, but we need to see what attracted them to each other.  This could give deeper meaning to their relationship and result in the abuse having far more impact on audiences.  We want to be shocked and to care but we need to feel invested in the characters for this to happen.

The play recovered itself in the final scenes with the introduction of Picasso’s mistress (voice over) and the show ended with aplomb, sharing an image of Maar, painted by Picasso.  Actor Faye Ziegler playing Maar, had a really good rapport with the audience who were clearly rooting for her, but the middle section just lacked the same energy.  

MAAR, DORA by Nadia Jackson at Old Red Lion Theatre 12 – 16 March 2024

Box Office https://www.oldredliontheatre.co.uk/maar-dora.html

Written by Nadia Jackson

Directed by Spiky Saul

Starring Faye Ziegler & Dom Thomson