The Boadicea of Britannia Street

It’s always interesting to see something new and this comedy by Ade Morris is not one I’d encountered before. It centres on Fran Lamb, a widow, poet and writer for the local paper who starts a creative writing group in the local village hall. It attracts panicked PE teacher Penny, nervous housewife Annie and shy librarian Janet. As the story progresses, we see these three women sharing their secrets with the group, gaining confidence and flowering while their leader fades away, giving us a mixture of hope and sadness by the end.

We were greeted by a good set, as I’ve come to expect from this group, effectively portraying the back room of a village hall, complete with kitchen area, and this was used for almost the entire play, apart from a brief excursion to the local police station, represented simply on the stage extension.

All four cast members portrayed and maintained their characters well. Rowenna Gordon, was completely believable as the PE teacher who hates children but finds herself pregnant after a brief affair with the Head of Maths and cannot tell her mother. The whole story was told from her point of view and she narrated the action from stage right on the stage extension.

Teresa Enke, who also directed the play, made Francesca a strong lioness, gathering her little group of cubs around her and inspiring them to write and ultimately confide their secrets. She allowed Fran’s character to diminish nicely as her cancer took hold and the treatment became more debilitating, but still with some flashes of the original woman.

Jackie Foster was every inch the nervous housewife Annie who constantly gets her words mixed up, until she admits that her husband is abusing her. The revelation gives her the strength to leave him and to speak without confusing her words.

Sarah Maker gave us a delightfully shy, retiring and bespectacled librarian until she too gains confidence and blossoms by coming out to the group as a lesbian. The scene where she tries to persuade Annie to kiss her was particularly well handled.

My only real criticism must be levelled at the script, most particularly the way Annie got so many words jumbled up. I felt the author used this device a little too much and it became more irritating than amusing. It must also have made Annie’s dialogue very difficult to learn! Despite this, and the fairly serious subject matter, there were plenty of laughs along the way and I left feeling I’d been well entertained.

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