Steel Magnolias

Steel Magnolias is a story about friendship, womanhood and I agree with Paul Matthews who directed this production it gives a strong sense of positivity during tragic circumstances.

The play is set in Louisiana so there is no hiding from the accents needed, and all the ladies were vocally outstanding, well-done ladies.

Emma Houldershaw played the salon owner Truvy.  Emma was confident and she showed how Truvy had a sense of loyalty towards her friends, and her caring nature in how she helped Annelle in particular.  It would have been nice to have seen some light and shade in her performance, for example she talked about her husband a lot but there was never a sense of how she truly felt about him, it all stayed on one emotional level.

Annelle (Krystel Howard) is a character who goes on a true journey throughout the play and Krystel did a really good job doing this.  She showed how Annelle really gained confidence through the church, and she was the one character who truly had a positive ending, as she was starting a new family.  I was really impressed with the little subtle things that Krystel did, for example holding her head higher and showing the gain in confidence she received through her religion.

The heart of the story is in the mother daughter relationship of Shelby (Lisa Hamilton) and M’Lynn (Lyn Hudson).  Lisa really showed how much having a family meant to Shelby and Lyn showed in the second scene in particular how conflicted M’Lynn is between her desire to make sure her daughter stays alive and allowing her to pursue her dreams.  It really is a heartbreaking relationship and one that Lyn brought to a crescendo with a powerful last speech.  The passion Lyn showed was stunning, and I think the whole audience felt it, however I do feel less is more when it comes to movement on stage at certain times and just standing and delivering that final speech static allowing the audience into M’Lynn’s eyes and soul would have made what was already a powerful speech, and well delivered speech even more outstanding.  Having said all this, I want to praise Lisa and Lyn for creating and portraying a tragic mother daughter relationship, well.

Louise Davey played Clairee she really showed how important this group of friends are to her, and how trying to lighten the mood is her strength, take for example the moment she offered Ouiser as something to hit to M’Lynn, it made everyone smile in a moment of heightened emotions.  Ouiser was portrayed by the outstanding Pam Murphy.  There are times in any show you need something to lift the mood and bring in a new energy and Pam did this effortlessly; I really enjoyed this performance.  The energy and characterisation that Pam gave Ouiser was fantastic.

The set was well designed, and I agreed with Paul’s choice to have the salon painted in brighter colours.  The changes to the set in between the scenes needed to be more choreographed to make them slicker, also the long pauses in-between the scenes did affect the pace of the play.  There were times the set could have been set quicker even potentially having the cast set some of the scenes in full light at the start for example the Christmas tree could have been set by Truvy in light at the start of the scene to some music.  The more done in light in front of the audience the less the pace is affected.

This was Paul Matthew’s first step into directing and well done for taking on such a well-known play and doing it justice.  Thank you to Cheshunt for their hospitality and I look to coming to see your panto!

 

 

 

 

Scott Welch

Reps district 9

NODA East

 

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