Post by marion on Feb 16, 2023 9:59:58 GMT
To Richmond yesterday for hopefully a more enjoyable outing than the less than chilling ghost story last week.
This show ran in the West End where I believe it won the Best New Comedy Olivier award but it was cut short by covid. It is now touring until June.
The premise is that five young female servants, who start off with a bit of light dusting in the auditorium, enact the Pride and Prejudice story in their break, taking on multiple roles each. Thus Mrs Bennet and Mr Darcy are played by the same actress who simply swaps a loose dress for a jacket before coming on again, sometimes almost immediately. It plays out very quickly with no snagging at all and with minimal sets. There is music (You’re So Vain for Darcy, Smooth Operator for Wickham), swearing (F bomb alert) and loads of comedy. In a way it reminded me of Six, solely using young women and singing, but the quick change aspect adds another layer.
The theatre was all but full, and I was expecting loads of kids but of course it is half term so no school parties. In fact the audience was mainly older (usual matinée crowd) so I thought gosh, I hope they haven’t missed the *sort of in the title, because we went to see a modern take on Persuasion which didn’t go down terribly well.
I thought it was really good, with excellent performances from the five actresses. It surprised me that it was an all white cast as I’m so used to colour blind casting. The execution was terrific and the only downside was some rather tuneless singing. It was definitely an ensemble show and everyone played every part so well. The audience loved it with huge applause and cheering at the end. Well worth the trip I thought.
This show ran in the West End where I believe it won the Best New Comedy Olivier award but it was cut short by covid. It is now touring until June.
The premise is that five young female servants, who start off with a bit of light dusting in the auditorium, enact the Pride and Prejudice story in their break, taking on multiple roles each. Thus Mrs Bennet and Mr Darcy are played by the same actress who simply swaps a loose dress for a jacket before coming on again, sometimes almost immediately. It plays out very quickly with no snagging at all and with minimal sets. There is music (You’re So Vain for Darcy, Smooth Operator for Wickham), swearing (F bomb alert) and loads of comedy. In a way it reminded me of Six, solely using young women and singing, but the quick change aspect adds another layer.
The theatre was all but full, and I was expecting loads of kids but of course it is half term so no school parties. In fact the audience was mainly older (usual matinée crowd) so I thought gosh, I hope they haven’t missed the *sort of in the title, because we went to see a modern take on Persuasion which didn’t go down terribly well.
I thought it was really good, with excellent performances from the five actresses. It surprised me that it was an all white cast as I’m so used to colour blind casting. The execution was terrific and the only downside was some rather tuneless singing. It was definitely an ensemble show and everyone played every part so well. The audience loved it with huge applause and cheering at the end. Well worth the trip I thought.
Anymore to come?
