A Mirrored Monet

Melancholy and Tranquillity Explode

A Mirrored Monet

by Carmel Owen

Aria Entertainment at Charing Cross Theatre until 9^th May

Review by Gill Martin

Beige. Beige set. Beige costume. Beige future as the world blows itself up in World War I.

The master of colour, Claude Monet, whose glorious Water Lilies are favourites in global galleries and adorn a million chocolate boxes and greeting cards, is a beige figure at the opening of the London premiere of an exciting new musical, A Mirrored Monet, which is authentically inspired by Monet’s own written records and those of his peers.

But beige is out and the production explodes into colour with energy and verve, sweeping us up in the sumptuous music and insightful script.

Monet’s palette is yellow, cobalt blue, vermilion and shimmering white, “an ocean of light,” beloved by the Impressionist who broke from tradition. The young artist is bursting with new ideas and, like his close compatriots, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and the irrepressible modernist painter Édouard Manet, determined to introduce their work to the world. Their paintings are considered too radical and the Old Guard constantly discourage them as they try to make their mark on French society and display at The Paris Salon.

Two actors take on the mantle of Monet, Jeff Shankley as the grey-haired, portly painter with failing eyesight with dashing Dean John-Wilson as the artist in his youth.

It’s Paris 1916, when Monet struggles to complete the commission that will define his legacy . . . The Water Lilies. His survival depends on its success as bills go unpaid. Food, wine and cigarettes are in short supply as the First World War takes its toll.

Plagued by creative block, he retreats into memory, revisiting his early artist days with contemporaries Renoir (Sam Pegg), Manet (Aaron Pryce-Lewis) and Bazille (Ritesh Manugula). And, most importantly, his muse, Camille Doncieux (Brooke Bazarian) who is the love of his turbulent life, his muse, his mistress, his wife and the mother of his son Jean.

This bodiced, buttoned and bustled beauty posing with parasol is a delight, even when moaning at her lover’s reluctance to give his name to his illegitimate son Jean.

Camille and young Monet’s duet of Nobody’s Child seals the deal. She dispenses with the horrors of a difficult childbirth with admirable no-nonsense speed, but is warned the next pregnancy could kill her.

Despite the vagaries of a struggling artist’s existence she is full of life, love, hope…and disappointment. How can she abandon gay Paree to settle in foggy London without baguettes and coffee and only soggy fish and chips and milky tea to sustain her? In contrast Monet is captivated by London’s mist and burning orange suns setting the Thames aglow.

Beset by depression and anger the ageing Monet accepts paintings are his curse and that family is sacrificed on the altar of his talent.

In its fully staged form, A Mirrored Monet first saw light, as a shorted version, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2023 and now it’s London’s turn to enjoy two dozen musical numbers and a feast of acting talent.

Natalie Day as Blanche and Suzanne, and Steven Serlin as Marquis are both outstanding in this Off West End theatre under The Arches off Villiers Street below Charing Cross station, with its occasional reassuring rumble of trains.

Director Christian Durham and the music direction of Michael Webborn bring Belle Époque Paris to London. The vivid designs by Libby Todd, enhanced by Jodie Underwood’s lighting and Andy Johnson’s soundscape, take us right into the ambience of the era. And it is Matt Powell’s video projections that bring period Paris to sparkling life.

Carmel Owen said she was struck by the intense melancholia beneath the tranquillity of the Water Lilies series. “These paintings were his great gift to France and to us all, created while enduring serious depression, the violence of war and the process of ageing itself,” she says.

Jeff Shankly adds: “A Mirrored Monet is a beautiful work of art, exquisitely crafted — one that invites not imitation, but surrender.”

Beige? Be gone!

Gill Martin, March 2026

Photography by Pamela Raith