Based on the ‘lost’ novel by Simone de Beauvoir, only published in 2021 after sixty years, The Inseperables is the story of the friendship between Sylvie Lepage and Andrée Gallard.
Rooted in the real story of de Beauvoir and her friend Elisabeth ‘Zaza’ Lacoin, The Inseperables seems a perfect candidate to move to the stage, and Grace Joy Howarth rises to the challenge here at the Finborough Theatre.
We first meet Sylvie (Ayesha Ostler) and Andrée (Lara Manela) at school. They are nine years old and precocious scholars.
The intense fascination Sylvie develops for her friend is evident throughout the whole play, and even suggests love on Sylvie’s part.
As girls from different social backgrounds, they still have to navigate a world that suggests that remaining single is not an option.
What I particularly liked about this new production was the use of video design (by Jessica Brauner) using the Finborough’s window to offer views of church, schoolroom board, letters and photographs.
Both girls were viracious readers and challenged their teachers on what was suitable reading for young ladies.
Although Sylvie did not fall in love with a boy, Andrée had two loves in her life. Bernard, a farm boy, was first, then Pascal, who wanted to study medicine. Both had a major impact on her emotional state.
Andrée also plays violin, beautifully mimed in an almost balletic way, which captures the inner workings of her heart.
This is a play which will reach those who remember their formative years, directed by Anastasia Bunce who allows the four actors to inhabit their characters and ensuring the whole of the Finborough performance space is used to full effect.
Lighting by Abraham Walkling-Lea and sound by Flick Isaac-Chilton add to the period feel of a story that begins in 1917 and ends in 1929.
Both Andrée and Pascal’s mothers, and a teacher, are played by Caroline Trowbridge who is particularly pious and repellent as the ambitious mother pushing her daughters into socially suitable but personally unsuitable marriages.
Pascal, ‘a handsome man’, and a fussy Abbé who insists on regular confessions for even the youngest of children are portrayed with flair by Alexandre Costet-Barmada.
The Catholic church looms large in Hazel Poole Zane’s set design, which includes a cross, while functionality is presented in a storage bench that also doubles as a love seat, cafe table and even a seat in a horse-driven coach.
There is a lot of symbolism at play during The Inseperables. Cherries are eaten, curtains draped, books are meaningfully held, glances are quickly exchanged.
In de Beauvoir’s novel and this play, the story of Sylvie and Andrée is a tragic love story told with an eye on the future emancipation of women.
As de Beauvoir herself said in her classic feminist book The Second Sex, “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman”. Her fiction leads up to this deeply significant discourse.
With strong performances from all four actors, this play brings back the person of ‘Zaza’ Lacoin into prominence.
Whether her friendship with Simone de Beauvoir was an intense friendship or something more romantic remains an open question, although Howarth would seem to lean towards the latter.
The programme notes tell us that de Beauvoir returned to ‘Zaza’ time and again in her fiction, as if to capture her back from the loneliness of her early grave.
3.5 stars.
The Inseperables continues at Finborough Theatre until 10 May – tickets here.
My review is based on the final preview – thanks to the producers for letting me review early.