The play is loosely based on Jacqueline Du Pré’s battle with the multiple sclerosis that ended her career as a brilliant cellist and takes the form of a series of therapy sessions between Stephanie Abrahams, a haughty violinist who also has MS and her therapist Dr Feldmann. Kempinski tenderly explores the horrors of the psychological as well as the physical effects of such a debilitating condition, asking of us all what we would do if rendered unable to do what we loved the most.
As Stephanie, Clare Foster is excellent. Younger than the actresses I’ve previously seen take on the role, she really goes for the jugular in displaying all of the spikiness of a wealthy, top-tier artist who has previously been immune from the harshness of real life, only slowly revealing the layers of humanity that are exposed by her condition, the mood swings that she has to surrender to as she finally comes to accept that she can no longer play her beloved violin, something that had become an extension of her very self.