Calendar Girls

Calendar Girls takes place within the timeframe of the gestation of a sunflower. As John observes: The flowers of Yorkshire are like the women of Yorkshire. Every stage of their growth has its own beauty, but the last phase is always the most glorious. Then very quickly they all go to seed.

Calendar Girls is about loss, friendship and community. The most effervescent scene is the one in which the “nude” calendar shots are taken but later scenes are more revealing. Revealed are the cracks in relationships, the broken dreams and the regrets, yet the whole is overwhelmingly positive, an exhortation to fill the hours left to us in the most productive ways.

Director Nicholas Lahey assembles a talented ensemble with stand-out performances by Fransina Kennedy, Sarah Phillips and Lillie McNamara. Pip Tyrell excels at comic timing. Not all the performers master the Yorkshire accent, however, which is jarring and renders some moments unintelligible. Once the nervous energy of the exposition settles, however, the characters become coherent individuals, as do the various smaller roles supporting the members of the Women’s Institute.

The single set is delightful. The Women’s Institute Hall confines the aspirations of the women but the outdoor scenes remove these limitations.

There are poignant moments in Calendar Girls but there is much humour and plenty of laugh out loud moments in celebration of life, aging and women.

Anne Blythe-Cooper