“The Louvre without art is like a heart without a beat”. Directed by Morgan Hazelip, the Bedlam original play, Saving Victory, pulls the audience into the lifeless shell of France’s most famous museum during the second World War.
With the Nazis casting a shadow over their prized treasures, museum employees must take it upon themselves to extract and guard the last vestiges of French material identity, before their history is lost forever.
The characters are tasked with trapping historical works into boxes, knowing they will remain in hiding indefinitely. A lorry arrives to take a batch of art, and Felice (Ava Godfrey), and museum director Jacques Jaujard (Ece Yarasik) exit to the French countryside, seeking refuge for themselves, and more importantly the art.
Exhausted, the five remaining staff members, Vincent (Laura Hack), Paul (Morgan Hazelip), Henri (Cara Pischke), Andre (Sula Herath) and Mary (Abi So) are left protecting a piece of great significance to French military history, the Winged Victory, after which the play is named. In their desolation, the characters find warmth in their noble objective. Vincent sings a hymn of “victory,” Paul rebuts with a quip, and Henri posits the naval spirit of pushing onwards, which the Victory embodies. Though missing its arms and face, the statue has survived, and so too will Europe from the threat of fascism.
As the lorry arrives to bring the cast and the statue away, Mary is left in Paris. The Nazis inevitably arrive, with a soldier, Franz (Hanabi McGrath), who is furious with the absence of artwork. Victory has been achieved – or saved – yet, the atmosphere is left as empty and gutted as the Louvre itself. As the stage lights dim, Mary hangs a painting of an empty room on the wall, one which will eventually be filled.
Image courtesy of Miki Ivan via Saving Victory production team.