RBG Of Many,One by Suzie Miller.
Directed by Priscilla Jackman and performed by Heather Mitchell. Designer.
David Fleischer. Lighting Designer. Alexander Berlage. Composer and Sound
Designer Paul Charlier. Assistant Director Sharon Millerchip. Voice and Accent
Coach. Jennifer White. The Playhouse. Canberra Theatre Centre. Bookings:02 62752700
or www.canberratheatrecentre.com.au.
Reviewed by Peter Wilkins
It is almost two years since I
reviewed Sydney Theatre Company’s production of RBG:Of Many, One. (See below) Last night at the Canberra Theatre
Centre’s Playhouse, I viewed the touring production through the prism of
passing time. Heather Mitchell’s performance remains as monumental as ever. Her
embodiment of Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s spirit, character and physicality is as
though the Supreme Court judge was on stage recounting her life and career to a
full house. Her seamless and entirely convincing transitions to other
characters in Suzie Miller’s funny, provocative, and moving play is
to be bewitched by the brilliance of a
chameleon of the art of acting. With a change of voice or gesture she
presents Presidents Clinton and Obama, her beloved husband Marty, her childhood
and younger self and an assortment of characters and colleagues. Director Priscilla
Jackman has made this revival as fresh, as alive and as thought provoking as
ever. RBG: Of Many, One is as though
it is as fresh minted as when I saw the production at STC’s The Wharf Theatre
in 2022.
But time passes and world events
throw a different light on the production. Ginsberg’s passionate response to
gender inequity and the dominant presence of men in positions of power and
authority appears more pronounced with the fervent sense of injustice from an
intellectual giant. Sadly Ginsberg lived long enough to bear the bitter
disappointment of Hillary Clinton’s defeat, but not long enough to witness Joe
Biden’s electoral defeat of the much despised Donald Trump. One can only
imagine how she would react to a presumption of Trump’s return to the White
House. Or the implications behind Grace
Tame’s experience and the Brittany
Higgins affair.
Director, actor and writer have
given audiences a revival as magnificent as the performance reviewed below and
a tribute that continues to pay grateful homage to the remarkable legacy of
Ruth Bader Ginsberg. But it does more. It reminds us of the ideals that
motivated this remarkable woman and that her battles and her achievements are
signposts to a better world for all irrespective of race, colour or creed and under
the guidance and protection of the law.
Although performed on a different
stage in a different city and at a different time, I include here my 2022
review. Last night’s performance was as powerful as I remember and ona second
viewing spontaneously brought me to my feet in ovation with the entire audience.
Heather Mitchell’s performance as
Supreme Court Judge Ruth Bader Ginsberg in STC’s RGB: Of Many, One is pure perfection. Playwright Suzie Miller has
crafted a theatrical eulogy as brilliant as Ginsberg’s legal mind. Director
Priscilla Jackman’s tight and engagingly fluid production is as sharply staged
and as clearly revealing and logical as Ginsberg’s judgements and battle for
universal equality for women.
But it is Mitchell’s performance
that places her at the very Pantheon of the actor’s craft. In 95 minutes of
magnetic and unforgettable acting Mitchell bestrides the Wharf Theatre stage
like the legal colossus that Ginsberg inhabited upon America’s Supreme Court. We
discover Ginsberg impatiently waiting for a phone call from President Clinton
to confirm her appointment to the Supreme Court. Miller reveals a woman as
human and as nervously expectant as anyone who might be awaiting life changing opportunity. Throughout the
performance Miller and Mitchell introduce us to a woman, who, in spite of her
position, her indefatigable battles for justice, her courageous will to be true
to herself, her profession and her mother’s early advice remains simply human.
Her girlish passion and belief in what she knows to be right, her reliance on
her mother’s wisdom, her girlish awe in the presence of a president, her
victorious delight at every case that she wins and her resolve not to be cowed
by defeat or confrontation all reveal an extraordinary woman who believed in
what she knew to be right and dedicated her life to creating a better world for
both men and women.
Mitchell’s astounding performance
traces Ginsberg’s life over her childhood to her last breath in 2020. With only
the occasional stage hand to pass her a prop or change a setting, Mitchell,
chameleon like transforms from schoolgirl to young wife to feisty defendant,
grandmother to the Associate Justice at lunch with Obama, in the court, at the
opera or at her exercises. This is a panoramic account of a woman, whose
indelible mark on the judicial system and humanitarian cause has left a legacy to
inspire generations of lawmakers.
Miller does far more than make
audiences aware of Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s
professional achievements, her generational contribution to legal reform
and her elevated status to cultural icon. First and foremost Miller reminds us
that Ginsberg, apart from her achievements in law was a human being. RBG: Of Many, One is a moving and heart -warming
love story between Ginsberg and her husband, Marty. It depicts her joy at
motherhood and her devotion to her grandchildren and their reciprocal love. We
hear her admission of shame and guilt at her outburst against Trump, not
because it is the natural reaction of a concerned American, but because of the
conflict it exposes between her duty to the law and her professional
responsibility to remain detached from the political process. However,
Mitchell’s performance leaves one in no doubt. RBG was a compassionate, loving
and also vulnerable human being.
Photos by Prudence Upton