The Countess tells of a scandal in Victorian London society: a love triangle involving noted art critic John Ruskin, his beautiful wife Effie and his friend and protege, the preRaphaelite painter John Everett Millais. As the result of a four-month holiday spent by the trio in the Scottish highlands their lives are changed irreversibly. An affair blossoms between Effie and Millais, and with good reason, as the audience later is to learn. The secret the Ruskins hid, not disclosed until the final scene, is truly shocking, and more than justifies Effie's infidelity. More melodrama than drama, the play holds our interest by means of some suspenseful and witty writing and a fine cast, most notably Jennifer Woodward as Effie, James Riordan as John Ruskin, Jy Murphy as Millais and Kristin Griffith, as Effie's ironic and tart-tongued friend, Lady Eastlake. It's nice to see a costume drama, well presented, and in this case, well directed by Ludovica Villar-Hauser. The piece would, in my opinion, make good movie material, and I don't mean that in a detrimental sense. Word of mouth has made The Countess a sleeper hit, and it's well worth seeing.
