Reviews

Do not expect naturalism.  In another remarkable flight of imagination, playwright Jen Silverman (Wink, The Moors) puts on stage not just a grieving mother but also her two days dead stillborn, the guilty mid-wife, and a bitter, misanthropic teenage dominatrix.  There is no natural cause and effect here – except for the characters’ emotions.  The story is ‘absurd’, but Ms Silverman’s purpose is to explore what is under or behind the natural, that is so often presented as ‘naturalism’ – and make us question it.&

This is a delightful concept with a fabulous range and choice of historical women. The vast array of characters included Mary Queen of Scots (Fiona Crombie), Alexandra of Bavaria (Liliana Braumberger), Sophia Duleep Singh (Jazba Singh), Isabella of Spain (Joana Costa), Eleanor of Aquitaine (Sonia Marcon), Matilda of England (Madalyn McCandless), Elizabeth of Austria (Emily Scerri), Hortense Bonaparte (Emma Jevons), Himiko (Seon Williams), Persephone (Avril Good), Virgin Mary (Delaram Ahmadi), Njinga (serious meerkat), and Catherine the Great (Danielle Robinson).

Stories are created to entertain and are used to explain and illustrate abstract ideas or concepts in a way that makes them attainable. Singing Swallows, created and performed by Romi Kupfer, is a wonderful new storytelling theatrical experience about young Holocaust survivors; its aim is to prick ears and spark imagination not just for the young, but for everyone.

Quartet has become a popular title on the amateur circuit. Its gold-class pedigree includes a West End season in 1999, and a film which starred Maggie Smith, Pauline Collins, Tom Courtney and Bill Connelly. It’s another in a series of plays and movies for an older audience like Ladies In Lavender, and it fits the bill nicely.