Lizzie Siddal at Arcola Theatre – preview
Emma West as Lizzie Siddal at the Arcola Theatre. Photograph: Simon Annand
If last year’s blockbuster exhibition on the art of the rebellious Pre-Raphaelites at Tate Britain left you wanting more, a new play on the life of the enigmatic Elizabeth Siddal could provide the perfect antidote to panto season.
Written by Jeremy Green, whose previous credits include Snakes at the Old Vic Theatre and The Wolfgang Chase for BBC radio, Lizzie Siddal charts the trajectory of the quintessential Pre-Raphaelite muse from unknown model to Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s lover, wife and artist in her right.
“I was just fascinated by this tremendous story. Lizzie was not just a model but an artist at a time when the art world was very much a male-dominated scene,” Green says.
“She pursued love and her art and ultimately it led to her downfall.”
Siddal was ‘discovered’ by artist Walter Deverell in a back-alley bonnet shop just off Leicester Square in 1849 and soon began modelling for Pre-Raphaelite painters including Rossetti and William Holman Hunt.
Three years later her portrait was immortalised as the tragic figure of Ophelia in Sir John Everett Millais’ iconic painting. Siddal spent several arduous months reclining in a bathtub as the drowning heroine for Millais’s painting, contracting pneumonia in the process.
At around this time she started posing exclusively for Rossetti and forged ahead with her own career as an artist and poet, gaining the patronage of John Ruskin.
While making her mark professionally as an artist, Siddal’s relationship with Rossetti was damaged by his numerous affairs and several broken-off engagements. Siddal battled depression and other serious illnesses and when they finally did marry in 1860, the bride had to be carried to the church.
Plagued by poor health and addicted to laudanum, Siddal died in 1862 at the age of just 32 – a mysterious denouement that remains a source of speculation to this day.
“She was strong and independent and deciding to be an artist at that time was no mean feat,” director Lotte Wakeham says, adding that there’s a darkness to the play that feels right for the winter months.
“When I read the script I loved the story of such a strong, interesting female character. The play is very witty and fast-moving and really tells us a lot about her as a person.”
With rolling copper-red hair and alabaster skin, actress Emma West takes the lead as the beguiling Lizzie on stage at Dalston’s Arcola Theatre – somewhat fittingly a former Reeves paint factory.
Lizzie Siddal is at the Arcola Theatre, 24 Ashwin Street, E8 3DL until 21 December