Sometimes what’s obvious to one person turns out to be an “Oh, yeah!” moment for the rest of us. Playwright Vivian J. O. Barnes happened to be watching television when the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, was leaving the hospital 7 hours after delivering the youngest of her three children. Barnes saw more than just another frenzied photo circus surrounding the royals. Her first response was to ask, “Who would make her do that?!”
Childbirth, as natural as it is, disrupts and traumatizes the body. Usually, rest is its most effective curative. Like Barnes, we all should have been wondering the same thing about the accelerated photo op.
With Duchess! Duchess! Duchess!, now streaming on Steppenwolf’s video platform, Barnes takes a make believe journey behind the veil of mystery dividing Britain’s royal family from the rest of the world and constructs a half hour conversation between two duchesses. One a veteran and the other an incoming novice. Coinciding with the March 9th blockbuster interview Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, and Prince Harry had with Oprah Winfrey on CBS, it’s both reasonable and expected to see Middleton and Markle as inspirations for the fictional duchesses the play portrays.
Barnes’s theatrical conjecture not only aims to critique the human cost of rigid compliance to protocol and tradition, her cautionary tale also attempts to extend its gaze and comment on the hazards of exclusive institutions like the monarchy. The playwright wants to see how these enclaves, that don’t have a reputation for being welcoming or warm to outsiders, respond to people of color; specifically, black women.
We sense how high the personal cost of membership in such a privileged society can be immediately as the play opens with the established duchess waiting for the soon-to-be duchess to arrive for a private meeting. Played by Sydney Charles, she’s inordinately tense and nervous as she practices how she will say hello.
Other than casting, the race component never really appears as conspicuously as you might suspect or hope. The playwright and actors are all African-American. But there’s never any direct mention of race. Aspects of the language the incoming duchess uses could be considered emblematic of Black speech. It could just as easily be thought of as generational. What comes through much more clearly is the specter of what the newer duchess could become once she’s absorbed into the system.
Steppenwolf ensemble member Celeste Cooper plays the duchess in training who’s eager, curious and ready to bond. Ms. Charles as the seasoned duchess remained throughout a blank wall that could implode at any moment. She’s impenetrable, stoic and aloof as she explains how to sit properly in a chair and reminds her pupil that they should always address one another formally. She was also visibly struggling with something that initially appeared to be physical pain; but eventually took on overtones of a psychological anguish that manifests itself physiologically. She would grimace and even moan. When asked how she coped with the demands of her position, the established duchess advised to “pretend you’re not there”.
After listening to Prince Harry in the Oprah interview explain the dedication to purpose it takes to fulfill the role of a high ranking royal, likening the experience to being trapped in a system that can teeter on toxic when British tabloids are factored in, the assessments Barnes’s makes in Duchess! Duchess! Duchess! seem pointedly accurate.
Much to the relief of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, and all of those who empathized with their grueling struggle to survive the tempest Markle’s mere existence generated in the British tabloids, they eventually escaped. You can’t help but hope the same good fortune falls on Markle’s fictional counterpart.
Duchess! Duchess! Duchess!
Through April 25, 2021
Steppenwolf Now
