THERESE RACQUIN
Role: Therese Racquin
Director: Pip Broughton
Production: Nottingham Playhouse
Year: 1990
Toyah played the lead role of Therese in the 1990 production of Therese Racquin at Nottingham Playhouse, directed by Pip Broughton.
The play was first performed in 1873 and is by the French writer Émile Zola who based it on her novel of the same name. Thérèse Raquin tells the story of a young woman, unhappily married to her first cousin by an overbearing aunt who may seem to be well-intentioned but in many ways is deeply selfish. Thérèse’s husband, Camille, is sickly and egocentric, and when the opportunity arises, Thérèse enters into a turbulent and sordidly passionate affair with one of Camille’s friends, Laurent.
In his preface, Zola explains that his goal in this novel was to “study temperaments and not characters” Because of this detached and scientific approach, Thérèse Raquin is considered an example of Naturalism.
