Dennis Farrin

Highlights

• Review of "O Jackie" at Barons Court Theatre, 2018 by Sally Knipe for London Theatre 1 - https://www.londontheatre1.com/reviews/review-o-jackie-barons-court-theatre/
  
  It was a bit of a relief to leave the cold and ice outside and step down into the Baron’s Court Theatre’s tiny, cosy little space. I am tickled at how different this is from the Teatro La Fenice that I was lucky enough to visit in December, the venue for many of Maria Callas’s most famous performances. I was somewhat worried to see there was a cast of nine performing; if they all get onstage at once one or two of them might end up on my lap!
  
  The onstage interview by journalist Rebecca Storm (Faye Maughan) gives us plenty of background information about the Kennedys, Maria Callas and Aristotle Onassis which sparked my interest so much that I was searching the internet for more information on my way home. The play is about the Callas, Kennedy, and Onassis love triangle. After the assassination of President Kennedy, former first lady Jackie Kennedy marries her long-term friend or possibly long-term lover, Aristotle Onassis. She admits that this is mainly to gain a feeling of safety and to achieve security and privacy on Skorpios, his private island. This is a rather cold loveless marriage in contrast to the other relationships that we learn about during the play.
  
  His two former mistresses Stephanie Carrington (Jassie Mortimer) and the great diva Maria Callas (Natalia Ambrosia) are both, bizarrely invited to the wedding. It is obvious that they both loved him dearly, as did his great friend Costas Gavros. Madame Kapuscinska gives an excellent performance as the wedding singer and Natalia Ambrosia is elegant, charming and dignified as the spurned Maria Callas. For me the stand out performance was Dennis Farrin as Costas, he appears in almost every scene and is engaging and totally believable.
  
  Nick Pelas, the writer and director, has done a good job in concisely telling this story in an entertaining way.