"The Human Voice" Rings Loud, Passionate, and True at Bay Street

Saturday night's riveting performance of La Voix Humaine/The Human Voice at Bay Street was an artistic triumph. Jean Cocteau's one-act tragic monologue, first staged in 1930 and set in a room in Paris, still feels contemporary. The plot of the original play was simple: A heartbroken woman holds on for dear life as she clutches the telephone receiver in a desperate, last-ditch attempt to win her lover back. In the preface to the published text, Cocteau wrote, "the actress must give the impression of bleeding, of losing blood like a limping beast, and ending the action in a room full of that blood." And yes, that is precisely how it felt watching this gut-wrenching show and the captivating performances of the two leads.

For Cocteau, this play must have been a cathartic experience since it was written shortly after detoxing from his opium addiction, and while he was in the middle of a volatile love affair with the troubled young writer, Jean Desbordes.

This innovative production was two shows in one. The audience saw both La Voix Humaine, the forty-minute, one-act opera composed in 1958 by Francis Poulenc, based on Jean Cocteau's one-act play of the same name, and the original 1930 monodrama, La Voix Humaine written by Mr. Cocteau.

Clad in silky black pajamas and a trench coat, the actors took opposite sides of the stage to enact their roles. Suicide, depression, rage, remorse, sorrow, regret, angst, heartbreak, lies, betrayal, tears, unrequited love, all these complex themes and emotions spilled all over the stage in both the operatic version of the play and the dialogue one.

The very talented James Patrick Nelson portrays a male version of the lead character in Cocteau's one-act play. He delivered the dialogue in English with passion and clarity and was most convincing as the jilted, angst-filled lover.

Ashley Galvani Bell sang the operatic version of this show in French. Ms. Bell's exquisite soprano voice, intense facial expressions, and expressive body language made you feel the full depth of this character's despair.

This opera was originally written for an entire orchestra, but this production pared down the music to a single pianist, the incredibly gifted Zalman Kelber. He was also Ms. Bell's opera coach. The entire show was well-staged and skillfully directed by J.A. Diaz.

I left the theatre blown away by the extraordinary level of talent that I had just witnessed from this unforgettable production of the classic opera and play La Voix Humaine.

Cindi Sansone-Braff is an award-winning playwright. She has a BFA in Theatre from UCONN and is a member of the Dramatist Guilds. She is the author of two self-help books, Grant Me a Higher Love and Why Good People Can’t Leave Bad Relationships.