Little Women

I should probably say that the story was new to me, since Louisa May Alcott’s book was not the kind boys read when I was growing up.  (This was reflected in the audience on the night I saw the show - over 80% female, by my estimation.)  A pity, it seems to me now, since this was the sort of production that makes me re-evaluate what makes a good evening’s theatre.  It was a very entertaining show, despite having the sort of structure that is normally difficult to bring to the stage: essentially a small family saga taking the four girls at the centre of the story into adulthood.  There is also no central conflict to the story - there’s a perpetual low-level skirmish with the girls’ sniffy Aunt March (Heather Bryant), and the tension of romantic entanglements, but the central question could really be reduced to “how do things turn out?”  The business of the play is to get the audience to care about the outcome through strong portrayals of the characters.

Being set over many years, the play goes through multiple locations.  This was all played-out on a single split-level set, with the dialogue and changes of lighting giving enough indication for the imagination of the audience to fill in the details of each location.  There were also a few songs recorded by a quartet from Winchester Operatic Society to give an indication of mood or season.

The eldest of the four girls, Meg (Blanka McPherson) was repeatedly shown shying away from a course of action until she was advised that it was something she couldn’t or shouldn’t do, at which point she set her jaw and made up her mind to do it.  Jo (Rose Barslund) developed from a cross-grained tomboy of a teenager into a sensitive and articulate writer.  Beth (Claire Jakeman) was the shyest of the four, the peacemaker, whose death was the major tragedy of the story.  Grace Durber played Amy, the youngest sister and clearly, at the start, the baby of the family.  She began the role in the high-pitched whine of an American schoolgirl and gradually modulated the tone as the character grew up, finally marrying Laurie (Michael Lechie), wealthy heir of a shipping magnate, who, in previous times, had been Jo’s rejected suitor.

Very credible performances from all the characters - the aforementioned and the smaller roles, notably Maria Head as the girls’ mother and Emily Cutler as manipulative, flirtatious socialite Sallie Gardiner.  An interesting, thoughtful production.

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