A wicked stepmum? No, hubby’s the rotter!
NOTHING is loved more by the theatrical establishment than disinterring a forgotten play by a female dramatist.
The authorities at Chichester’s Festival Theatre are, therefore, very pleased with themselves for unearthing this one by Githa Sowerby, a playwright best known for her work Rutherford & Son.
But the real value of her flawed but fascinating 1924 drama lies in its brilliant understanding of the human need for self-delusion.
Directed by Richard Eyre, the story is about a successful fashion designer called Lois who allows her new husband to look after her personal fortune.
The husband is not all he seems. But what drives the play is his increasingly desperate attempts to keep up appearances. Tellingly, when he’s rumbled, it becomes necessary for his family to invent a new fiction so they, too, can carry on in denial.
Ophelia Lovibond impresses as Lois. Elegant, droll and brisk, she carries a constant sense of her husband’s physical threat. In that role, Will Keen’s Eustace is a tense ball of self-loathing: shadow-boxing his demons as he fights to hide his secrets.
He is also a misogynistic cad who makes your blood run cold — and could be played with more charm at the start, to give him (and us) more of a journey.
As an early feminist tract, the play is a bit hit-and-miss, with a good deal of Barbara Cartlandish wish fulfilment — especially for Lois, who gets David BarkJones to come to the rescue as her handsome lover.
He’s the sort of chap who knows when to be firm with Lois, and when to fix her a stiff brandy. And by marvellous good fortune he lives next door!
JUST as happily for Lois is the fact that her two teenage stepdaughters turn out to be delightful: feisty enough to be interesting, but compliant enough to be charming.
Macy Nyman is spirited as the nervy younger sister, but Eve Ponsonby blazes a trail as the 18-year-old stepdaughter determined to defy her Pa and get married.
As her hilariously posh beloved, Samuel Valentine proves his mettle by dismissing her weak attempts at calling off their engagement.
Despite Eyre’s immaculate production, The Stepmother is not the classic it’s built up to be in the programme.
Sowerby’s melodramatic plot creaks, at times, like Noah’s Ark, yet the piece remains absorbing. And Tim Hatley’s handsome design ensures that it’s a very pleasingly restored antique.
THEATRE can go places other art forms only dream of; and the joy of this fleet-footed adaptation of Jules Verne’s adventure is the way it flies on the wings of imagination.
Chief engineers of Theresa Heskins’s delightful production, Around The World In 80 Days, are movement director Beverley Norris Edmunds and designer Lis Evans, who succeed in delivering a piquant blend of physical comedy and ingenious sets.
We start with the time-keeping, tea- supping regimentation of our hero Phileas Fogg in Victorian London. Evans’s design presents us with a mountain of luggage and a vista of maps. A jiggling train or swaying ship are summoned with the ease of a brolly or bowler hat, while James Atherton’s rattling music sets the pace.
But my favourite bits were the mimed fights synchronised with sound, and the sight of actors flinging papers that miraculously reappeared in the hand of another across the stage.
The acting is top drawer throughout. Andrew Pollard is a cross between Charles Dance and Bjorn Borg as our phlegmatic hero.
He is contrasted by Michael Hugo as his cheeky French valet, Passepartout. Sardonic touches from Matthew Ganley deserve special mention too, in a finely drilled company of eight actors playing 125 roles.
Happily, it’s on a national tour for more than 80 days, and suitable for children aged seven and up. Jump aboard if you can.