Calendar Girls

The Players’ Theatre in Thame was packed out, and at least three quarters of the audience were women.  “Calendar Girls” is such a positive, uplifting and affirmative story about female empowerment that it pulls in groups of friends and colleagues as well as local Women’s Institutes.  It is highly amusing and deeply affecting, often within a few lines.  And it draws heavily on a sense of community, joyously radiating this back to the audience so that despite the grief and setbacks that have to be endured, we leave the theatre feeling better about the world than when we went in.

The original calendar girls were members of Knapeley Women’s Institute in Yorkshire, who posed for a very tasteful, very British nude calendar to raise money in memory of John, a husband and friend lost to cancer.  Their modest enterprise took off in an extraordinary way.  The Thame Players company, faced with the not dissimilar challenge of disrobing in public, brilliantly resolved to compile their own calendar to raise money for Blood Cancer UK.  Not only is this a heart-warming example of group charitable action, it meant that the women on stage portraying the original calendar girls had a very real appreciation of the issues they had faced, and this came through in their performances.  It also led to a palpable sense of community amongst the ensemble: they had been through a lot together, and the dividing line between the portrayal of relationships and their real-life friendships felt very thin at times.

The set featured a dated but homely village hall with its wall panelling and patterned paper, and the essential optimism of the play was mirrored in the cheery colour palette.  The back wall of the village hall rather cleverly folded out to reveal a large back projection of “John’s Hill”, and this facility was utilised to change the light and weather visible through the clerestory above the village hall walls, and to provide a backdrop to the bows sequence in which were given a glimpse of the cast in the Thame Players’ own calendar.  The backstage area must have been stuffed with props as apart from the array of baked goods necessary to preserve the women’s modesty, there was a smoke-belching slide projector which lit up green or orange depending on whether it was showing broccoli, a carrot or some sprouts; a funeral director’s floral tribute to “Mum”; a comprehensive array of professional photographic equipment; and much else besides.  An impressive number of sunflowers filled the stage with colour and hope in the brief but emotional final scene.

The director carefully avoided the practical pitfalls of working in such an intimate space: the actors didn’t over-project, and gestures for the most part were limited and scaled back.  The dialogue was fundamentally secure, and on the odd occasions when there was the suspicion of it faltering there was always someone there to fill in and cover up.  The Yorkshire accents were persuasive and consistent, and the characterisation was really strong – it may be an extraordinary story, but the participants were resolutely ordinary people.  This perhaps was the great strength of the production: the characters remained relatable and believable throughout.  Plus, of course, that wonderful sense of community which infused the whole piece, a group of people coming together to achieve something worthwhile, a collection of individuals facing down their doubts and demons to act collectively towards an outcome which they will remember forever.

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