Calendar Girls

Hugely successful on the silver screen and achieving equal status with a first appearance on stage at the Chichester Festival on 5th September 2008, Calendar Girls transferred quickly to the West End the following year. Enormous audience acclaim followed every step of the way.
Underpinned by a witty script, which balances tender moments with hilarious lines, this very British story with a very British heart is uplifting and inspiring drawing every sine of emotion throughout.
Based on a true story it follows the progress of group of extraordinary women in a Yorkshire village who in 1999 produced a calendar to raise money for Leukaemia Research under the auspices of the Women's Institutes. It was inevitable that rights for the amateur stage would be granted; this marvellous production being from one of 500 groups staging the show.
Chris – Karen Swann – was performed with all the required feistiness and enthusiasm. Annie Clarke– Liane Hughes – was played with real sincerity. John Clarke – Mark Hughes – pinpointed emotions as tragic character, and when he died was the inspiration and catalyst for this whole wonderful moving story but without any drift into over-sentimentality. Tensions between the characters are clear. Chris and Annie go to a national congress of the WI to plead their case. Being told the final decision rests with the local leader, who grudgingly agrees to the calendar's sale. After an initial calendar sell out and bombardment from the media, the publicity begins to take its toll the final straw being a request to remove their clothing for a soap powder commercial.
All on stage in this production played their respective roles with conviction, excellent subtle comedy and enormous pride, affording opportunity for each and every character to have their moment. Celia –Katie Ho – is forthright, Jessie – Pauline Peach – a sparky retired school mistress, Cora –Mickie Brown – a challenged single mother and Marie – Anne Jones- the self-important chair of the local WI in Knapley, eventually won over by her Ladies.
Female nudity on a stage in Warwickshire was sensitively portrayed, as Photographer Lawrence – Nick Parker - snaps each Calendar Girl in a different pose, with slickness and speed moving for Miss May to Miss June seamlessly.
The play is not about tears though there are moments of sadness, such as when letters from relatives of cancer patients are read out with such poignancy yet handled sensitively with care and respect, not shying away from the impact the disease has of which all in the cast have experienced in some way
The cast are clearly enjoying themselves with warmth being expressed to a highly appreciative audience, in this quirky, poignant and at times hilarious production, with great care and attention taken not to play every line for laughs. The comedy and the one single swear word all superbly timed. Costumes and the set reflected very well indeed with mood and environment all contributing with enormous effect to an excellent production.

The real winners however are Leukaemia Research, the charity to date raising £2m from the sales of “The original “Calendar” and proceeds from this group’s alternative calendar – pictured below - just another boost to a most worthy cause.

This was a play brilliantly capturing the emotion behind a true story rather than one about women taking their clothes off, thanks to Director Joyce Eyre to whom I will leave the last words “Frankly if we can get that much closer to killing off this shitty cheating sly conniving silent bloody disease that cancer is then I tell You I would run round Coleshill market smeared in plum jam with a knitted tea cosy on my head singing Jerusalem”

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