‘Dinner With the Duchess’ Is a Theatrical Feast

Mai Abe, Laura Gordon, Andrew May. Photo by Michael Brosilow.

Next Act Theatre offers the most rewarding piece of theater now on the Milwaukee stage — by a Canadian playwright you may not have heard of before, but my, how that is likely to change. On paper, Dinner With the Duchess may not sound that exciting — a slowly revealing dinner conversation that is really a celebrity interview of the kind common in today’s media — but in craft and focus it mesmerizes viewers.

In the hands of good actors, which Next Act has gathered for this outing, playwright Nick Green reveals the inner side of participants in a chatty, disarming way. It involves a curious, knowledgeable, quiet reporter and her garrulous, authoritarian subject — the most successful classical violinist in the world, now ending a storied career — while the subject’s husband hovers around making dinner and ever so slyly puncturing the ego of his famous wife.

Dinner With the Duchess — and why famed violinist Margaret bristles at being called “duchess” — is a case of both title and meaning not revealed until the end of 90 minutes without interruption. During this engrossing session — where the characters are moved smoothly around under the invisible but perceptive pacing of director Samantha Martinson — the audience feels more than nuances. The patrons also change sides, almost without realizing it.

Playwright Green is gifted not just in quiet exchanges but in long stretches of recalled history. The anecdotes are not just about music or about feminine will or about hidden feelings, though you would think, on the surface, that those are the subjects at hand. When passages hang in the air, though, it is because we see more than just the words about the issues involved.

Margaret, a brilliant showcase for veteran actress Laura Gordon, is both brittle and playful, clearly a celebrity expert at handling the intrusive press. She jokes, she evades, she pretends, but there is a character mystery in Gordon’s sarcasm, take-charge manners and brilliant discourses. (About music history? About legends? About the subtlety of classical music harmonics? Or about something deeper?) In absorbing steps, a complex character and dissembler unfold.

None of her antics charms or dissuades reporter Helen, played with necessary calm and specificity by Mai Abe. As the quiet enabler who spends more time listening than revealing, Abe is a wonderful foil, moving in for the reportorial kill. Given how manic Margaret becomes in her defense, Abe has found the precise balance to make this story work.

As the husband who serves the dinner with his own lemon zings, Andrew May provides a mix of bitterness and patience. He underplays brilliantly.

There is a quiet simpatico here between Gordon, herself a noted director, and Martinson. It is a trust in carrying characters to the edge of commenting, but never over the edge.

Gordon is a marvel at how she jokes, pretends to be friendly, freezes with anger, reveals flattering fragments, then fights to not reveal more than she should. I don’t think there are many actresses who could dissect this character as well as Gordon does — but I can think of dozens of actresses who would want to try, so good is this part.

Dinner With the Duchess — notable for unobtrusive, excellent tech elements — runs through May 17 at the intimate, three-sided, 150-seat Next Act home at 255 S. Water St. For more information, visit https://nextact.org/show/dinner-with-the-duchess/

Dinner With the Duchess Gallery

Dominique Paul Noth served for decades as film and drama critic, later senior editor for features at the Milwaukee Journal. You’ll find his blog here and here. For his Dom’s Snippets, an unusual family history and memoir, go to domnoth.substack.com