Frank Marcus’s dark comedy was probably rather shocking when it first opened in 1964 – not because there’s a real murder involved but because of its portrayal of the off-air lesbian relationship between middle-aged actress June Buckridge and doll-loving Alice, known, tellingly, as Childie.
For the last 6 years, June has been the voice of Sister George, the popular district nurse in a successful rural radio soap. Now her ratings are starting to slip and (with justification) she’s petrified not only of being written out of the series but of losing Alice, too.
Already a domineering bully in her home life, the stress doesn’t soften June’s sadistic attitude to her pretty, young live-in partner – forcing her to eat her discarded cigar butts is just one of her ways of exerting control.
Meera Syal (so effective in her recent solo West End forays) is too brazenly butch, failing to reveal why Alice took up with her even before she was famous – or to make us care when she slips into self-pitying, slovenly drunkenness.
Parading around the flat in her underwear, Elizabeth Cadwallader’s Alice knows her own power and (as Belinda Lang’s ironically named BBC executive Mrs Mercy Croft arrives with the increasingly bad news) isn’t afraid to spot the main chance. But Iqbal Khan’s production never really finds the correct tone in what proves to be a rather heavy-footed revival.
Arts Theatre, Great Newport Street, WC2H 7JB Tube: Leicester Square (lovetheatre.com) Until 29th October
£20-£37.50
No comments:
Post a Comment