Calendar Girls

All over the country in the last few weeks, ladies have been taking their clothes off on stage.  It’s like a return to the 1970s - but with fewer exposed nipples.  The RMDS production really went to town with the calendar poses at the end of act one, with Ruth (Alison Titcombe) particularly memorable for a recumbent pose amongst a table of oranges.  Whilst Chris (Chris Grant) and Annie (Chrissie Peckham) lead the group (and the story), each of the WI “girls” gets a turn in the spotlight, so we see their different characters, backgrounds and motivations.  The male roles are basically cameos, but afford some excellent acting opportunities.  Richard Bennett was perfect as John, heading downhill with Leukaemia, whilst Ian Rix struck the right balance as Rod, torn between supporting Chris in her pet project and maintaining his struggling business.

The set was a permanent representation of the WI hall - a back wall of stage flats to allow an upstage exit and a serving hatch (for Annie’s teapot pose).  A mid-stage cloth was dropped for the hill-side scenes with projected images.  This made an effective change, though to my mind the sunflowers looked more like a planted field than a random scattering.

The creation of the calendar is such a high point that the momentum inevitably drops in act two, nevertheless, this production kept the mixture of humour and internal tension going, so that the story remained interesting to the end.  The script has some big emotional scenes and some big comic moments, all of which were well-timed by the cast to draw the maximum reaction from the audience who peppered the show with rounds of applause and joyous laughter.

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