Grace Joy Howarth's adaptation of Simone de Beauvoir's posthumously published memoir/novel about the author's powerful childhood friendship takes us back to the more innocent, and also more restrictive, time which formed the great feminist thinker. It is a celebration of a profound relationship between two intelligent young women who in different ways both struggle with the limited roles assigned to them in pre World War II France. Although the rebellious Andrée smokes and kisses a boy, she remains deeply religious and socially conformist, while her soulmate, Sylvie is actually more revolutionary. She rejects the notion of God and manages to avoid the requirement to marry. The latter character is based on de Beauvoir herself, and this is a touching portrait of the formative female relationship that contributed to the development of the writer who would later pen The Second Sex. Howarth's adaptation and the sensitive performances of Lara Manela as Andrée and Ayesha Ostler as Sylvie wonderfully recreate the innocence and intensity of the two girls' friendship as they turn into very different young women. Manela in particular succeeds in capturing the enthusiasm and naïveté of the sheltered schoolgirls whose confidences range from romance to religion, and beyond to their resistance against the strictures imposed upon them by their gender and class. The present-day obsession with labelling relationships, plus an almost prurient interest in finding a possible sexual aspect to any connection which displays the level emotional intensity displayed here, could unfortunately colour the depiction of this adolescent same sex infatuation, but Director Anastasia Bunce thankfully resists the temptation to go there. There are, however, some odd moments in this production, such as when the girls serve themselves communion, the unnecessary mime sequences, and a dance moment that borders on embarrassing. Nevertheless, despite these slips, The Inseparables is a lovely depiction of how one of the great writers of the 20th century found her muse and came to reject the religious and social stereotypes which defined women's lives.
Rated: ★★★
Reviewed by J.C.
Photo by A.J. Halsey and Melanie Silva
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