BOOKING NOW: MUST SEE EVENT
Home, I’m Darling
Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield, April 18-22. Tickets 0114 249 6000, sheffieldtheatres.co.uk
Playwright Laura Wade’s thought-provoking 2018 comedy Home, I’m Darling about one woman’s quest to be the perfect 1950s housewife is heading to Sheffield’s Lyceum Theatre this month.
In the lead role is BAFTA-winning Sheffieldborn actor Jessica Ransom who plays Judy, a 21st-century woman who, along with her husband, takes her love of the mid-20th century very seriously. How happily married are the happily married? Every couple needs a little fantasy to keep their marriage sparkling. But behind the gingham curtains, things start to unravel, and being a domestic goddess is not as easy as it seems…
“It’s about a couple who decide to live their lives as though they’re in the 1950s,” explains Ransom. “They’re both enthusiastic about the era – the look of it and the ideals as viewed through the kaleidoscope of movies, with that sensibility of everything being wonderful and rosy.
“Judy decides to leave her job and be a housewife, making the place lovely and cooking meals for her husband when he gets home from work. They dress in 1950s clothes and only eat food from that time or earlier. She comes home from the shops and decants sugar and flour into tins, and he drives a 1950s car and wears a 1950s suit at his job as an estate agent.
“Basically, they have this seemingly idyllic life that ends every day with him coming through the door, her handing him his slippers and a drink and them having a perfect evening. But let’s just say it doesn’t stay rosy that long.”
Home, I’m Darling received its world premiere at Theatr Clwyd in 2018, before running at the National Theatre and transferred to the Duke of York’s Theatre in the West End, winning the 2019 Olivier Award for Best New Comedy. “It’s a play that prompts interesting moral questions, not just about living as a housewife but also stuff about work, sex and relationships. I’m intrigued to see what conversations it starts,” says Ransom.
“It will be fascinating to see how audiences read it and what their opinions of it are. Some people come away from it going, ‘it’s a Brexit play’, or, ‘it’s about feminism’. Also, it looks cool, the sets are amazing and there’s brilliant music and dancing in it.”