In a small town in the hills above the Mediterranean in 1943, the artist Henri Matisse moved to the villa La Reve. Reve translates as “dream”, and it was his way of moving further away from the difficulties of war. He had refused to leave France when war broke out – his son was an art dealer in New York City – but had been living in Nice until this move. The south of France was mostly under the collaborationist Vichy government, but Nice was so close to the Italian boarder, 20 miles or so, that the residents felt, quite correctly, that the Italians would come in to “maintain order”. Late in 1942, they did, and soon thereafter Matisse moved to the villa in the small perched village of Vence.
Matisse’s health was not good. He had had surgery for what we are told was abdominal cancer in 1941, when he was 71. And so begins the story of A Model for Matisse, from The Midnight Company. He hired a young woman as a night nurse, Monique Bourgeois. When he was younger, Matisse was something of a ladies’ man, although nothing on the order of his friend and rival Pablo Picasso. But it appears that age or health or perhaps his conscience, had quenched that thirst. He and Monique developed a friendship. As he recovered, he asked her to model for him, and she did for a while, then went on with her life.
A few years later, she developed tuberculosis. Sent to recover at a Dominican convent in Vence, she discovered her former employer living across the road and they resumed the friendship. But after a while, to the immense dismay of Matisse, she decided to become a nun. Fate, showing an uncommon bit of humor, brought her back to the convent a few years later, after she’d taken vows.
Soeur (Sister) Jacques-Marie, as Monique now was, mentioned in conversation with Matisse that the convent’s chapel was actually a leaky garage. And so a great project was born. He and a monk interested in architecture and recovering at the convent designed a chapel. Matisse set to work creating its appearance both interior and exterior. The result is his masterwork.
There was much furor, both within the convent and in the greater world about the chapel. Matisse, said the mother superior, was not sufficiently moral to create a chapel. The French media implied that the relationship between the two was a romantic one, or had been at some point in the past. But the chapel was built, is still there, and is, I promise you, utterly glorious to visit, a bijou of a place.
This is, we are told, a world premiere of the play, taken from the documentary film of the same name written and directed by Barbara F. Freed. Freed and Joe Hanrahan collaborated on the play’s script. Hanrahan is at his best playing Matisse, sometimes bristly and sometimes with a twinkle in his eye, completely submersing himself in the character. Rachel Hanks is Monique/Soeur Jacques-Marie, innocent in the way that is immersed in the time period and the very religious. It’s clearly a directorial choice from Ellie Schwetye to keep her so controlled most of the time, even relating her clashes with the mother superior with calm, although her re-telling of the interview with the reporter from Paris-Match is quite, quite amusing.
Particular applause to Michael B. Perkins’ video design, which is so important here to show us some of why this is such a beautiful place. Liz Henning created the costume design, particularly relevant in a play about art.
Fascinating and at times breathtaking. And if it’s a consideration, no intermission.
A Model for Matisse
through September 21
The Midnight Company
.ZACK Theatre
3224 Locust