Sisterhood can be a solace, but it can also be the most vicious rivalry girls and women will ever experience in their lives. In The Doll Factory, set in Victorian-era London, 1850, Iris (Esmé Creed-Miles) and Rose Whittle (Mirren Mack) have ricocheted between the extremes of sisterly adoration and envy as young women. As orphans, they are taken in by the bitter, Bible-quoting Mrs Salter, for whom they paint the delicate porcelain faces of Victorian mourning dolls.
As teenagers, the co-dependence that bonded Iris and Rose begins to fray at the edges as Rose suffers from smallpox scarring to her face, and Iris begins to snap defensively at the leering men who enter Mrs Salter's doll factory, or - worse, as far as Rose is concerned - Iris indulges their attentions. Most threatening to young Rose is Iris's secret, phenomenal talent as an artist that she indulges in late at night. Alone in her bedroom, Iris undresses and paints her own portrait in detail. Rose, locked out of her sister's room, spies on Iris through the keyhole and becomes increasingly infuriated by her sister's secretive passion and the potential that Iris might very well pursue her artistic endeavour, leaving Rose behind.
While Rose becomes pale and lethargic, Iris's dramatic red hair, pearly skin and wide blue eyes draw the attention of (creepy) collector Silas Reed (Eanna Hardwicke) and the dangerously determined Louis Frost (George Webster). While these men appear to be enchanted by her, they both have a desire to possess her completely as if she were an object they could own. As Iris innocently allows both men to court her in the hopes that she will garner an education in painting, art collection and business so that she can ultimately pursue her solo career, she inadvertently pits the men against each other.
Louis is a member of a ragtag bunch of narcissistic, boorish Pre-Raphaelite painters who spend their days getting drunk and taking advantage of London's prostitutes or orphaned young women. When Louis turns his attentions to Iris, she is flattered rather than afraid and her sister, Rose, is envious and fearful that one - or both - of these men will sever the last ties she has with her twin sister. Fearful, she is savagely scornful of Rose, determined to drain her confidence and maintain the precarious co-dependence that is the basis for the only family Rose knows.
Rose (Mirren Mack) and Iris (Esmé Creed-Miles). Credit: Buccaneer TV
The twisted threads of reverence and rivalry weave through Rose and Iris’s relationship. They mirror one another, while also – like a warped, funhouse mirror – seem entirely opposite as they mature. Where their poverty, alienation and humiliation by Mrs Salter was enough to bond them as children, the introduction of men, sexual fantasies, aspirations of a career, and the drive to be independent draw Iris away from being her sister’s confidante and carer.
Rose’s face bears the scars of smallpox, and she is self-conscious to the extent of wearing a mask in public and whispering to Iris if she needs to convey anything to a stranger, or to make orders at the market. How will she cope in the world without Iris? Rather than plead with Iris to give up her dreams of becoming an artist, Rose resorts to fury, indignation and a savage-tongued rebuke of Iris’s talent and sinful sexuality. She is blinded by fear, but to Iris, her sister is becoming more of a burden than a best friend.
Iris is ambitious, which is a dangerous thing for a female to be at any time in history, but the truth of this is violently amplified in 1850. Perhaps Rose was ambitious once, too.
To some degree, Iris and Rose are not so far removed from the fictional Elena Ferrante characters Lila and Elena who are not sisters, but may as well be for all the dynamic, intimate tension between them. In Ferrante’s “The Story of a New Name”, which is the basis for My Beautiful Friend (currently screening on ) Elena’s jealousy over Lila’s wedding to an ill-fated man threatens an entire existential explosion. She opines, “If nothing could save us, not money, not a male body, and not even studying, we might as well destroy everything immediately.”
Like Elena, Rose is consumed by the change in the relationship with her beloved sister, Iris. Will Rose be the one to create utter, murderous chaos in The Doll Factory, or will it be the nefarious Silas Reed, mysterious Louis Frost, or bitter Mrs Salter?
The Doll Factory is now streaming on SBS On Demand.
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The Doll Factory
series • drama
MA15+
series • drama
MA15+
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