Siddal was a young woman who found herself at the centre of a vibrant art movement in the form of the Pre-Raphaelites – inspiring many, posing as models for some (Millais’ Ophelia for one) and also harbouring her own ambitions of becoming an artist. The play looks at how her relationship with Dante Gabriel Rossetti hampered her, along with the difficulties in negotiating the attentions of her powerful patron John Ruskin and the ill health that plagued her life, resulting in an addiction to laudanum that proved disastrous.
But aside from trotting through these biographical details, Green never really delves deep into the psychology of Siddal or even the driving artistic impulses of the movement – much time is spent instead on banal exposition and an unevenness of tone which undermines the more affecting moments within the writing. West is striking and supported well by Tom Bateman’s foppishly charismatic Rossetti and a multi-role-playing Daniel Crossley, but I never really felt like the play was adding anything new to our knowledge of Siddal.
