Little Gem **** TNT
Three generations of Dublin women with overlapping but very different lives are the subject of actress turned playwright Elaine Murphy’s first play, a trio of interlocked monologues simply staged with a scattering of projected images and a chair for each actress to sit on.
Amber has just finished school, likes a good time and has an unreliable boyfriend with a wandering eye. Her dowdy mother Lorraine might just be heading for a breakdown, with her compulsive urges to tidy and clean overflowing disastrously into her job as a shop assistant. Seated in the centre is Lorraine's own mother, sixty-something Kay, still devoted to her husband of over forty years, but with an itch that he can no longer satisfy since his stroke. Her determinedly cheerful face tells both of a lifetime of happiness with the man she loves and of sadness at the changes his illness has brought about.
In the course of a year, there’s a birth and a death and quite a bit of sex. Amber is forced to grow up, Lorraine lets her hair down and finds romance in the most unlikely place (as well as finally completely freeing herself of all attachment to the junkie ex-husband who left her to bring up their daughter alone) and Kay goes shopping for a Rampant Rabbit (though she chickens out and settles for a smaller green model instead).
It’s a tender, funny slice of everyday life with engaging performances from all three women - Sarah Green’s Amber coming to terms with new responsibility, Amelia Crowley’s Lorraine admitting to herself that tidying up isn’t necessarily the route to fulfilment and, best of all, Anita Reeves’ indomitable Kay ensuring that this heart-warming production definitely lives up to its name.
Bush Theatre, Shepherds Bush Green, W12 8QD (Shepherds Bush tube)
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