The Boadicea of Britannia Street

The good folk of the Arts Club certainly know how to mine the rich seam of thematic content which is present in plays with a predominantly female cast. Once again, the abundance of talented ladies at the Arts Club came together to present a play (which I have to admit quite happily to never having heard of before) which again brought out the best of our collection of golden girls and directed - with more than a nod in the direction of his feminist side! - by Geoff Baron.  The ladies in question this time find themselves thrown together at the Winkham Memorial Institute to ostensibly discover their hidden artistic side at the creative writing group but as is the way with plays of this sort, find hidden depths and shared connections which forge bonds which tie them together in a much more meaningful way.

Anne Baron led her merry band quite marvellously as Fran Lamb, writer for the local newspaper and instigator of the creative writing group. Anne brought her customary earthy reality to the role and acted as both the mother hen and creative inspiration to all the younger chicks on stage. Fran lives alone and sees her glory days of youth and vigour fading away, the creative writing group being a way to add a little sparkle back into the everyday grind. The first customer to arrive, Penny Tew, was another of Charlotte McConnell’s wonderful creations. A PE teacher who has nothing but contempt for her job (alas, would that any of the PE teachers of my acquaintance had as much self knowledge or even half the intelligence of Penny!) Charlotte’s character was a good deal more rounded and three dimensional in the flesh than the script provided for. When this sort of thing happens, it’s due to a keen eye for characterisation and a deftly realistic approach from the performer and Charlotte excelled here. Unlikely chums Annie and Janet completed the Memorial Institute’s quartet as played by Lisa-marie Hunt and Sara Ashton respectively. Annie had an  unfortunate off-stage husband with a tendency to be rather too free with his fists and Janet was as quietly secretive about her hidden secret as one would expect from a small town librarian. Lisa-marie’s character’s unfortunate tendency towards ill-suited malapropisms when flustered (which appeared to be most of the time) were handily translated by Sara in a gently amusing fashion throughout the play. All four characters find an uneasy accord with each other via the medium of the creative writing classes and are soon opening up the real sources of their dissatisfaction and it is here that the play itself really opened up too, the central idea of creating a play together based on warrior queen Boadicea being the key which unlocks their inner feelings and leads to a most satisfactory exploration of angst and anxiety.

As always at the Arts Club, the stage was immaculately presented to facilitate a thorough exploration of the play’s themes. The memorial institute was very well represented with an  authentically institutional paint scheme on display and the lovely touch of a reversible doorway which doubled as Fran’s front step: the Arts Club team on fine form here as ever. Costumes were realistic and in keeping with each character’s requirements and there were some excellent musical choices interpolated into the drama as it unfolded: wise choices which helped to add a great deal to the overall feel of the piece and were a wonderful addition. 

Anne Baron was a sympathetic guide through the play as Fran, bringing out the best of her merry band and the conceit of hanging the various issues and concerns of the fairer sex on the Boadicea play was a novel way to explore some well worn ideas. All of the performers developed their characters in a naturalistic fashion as the play progressed and added flesh to the bones of some fairly stereotypical ‘types’. Charlotte McConnell excelled as Penny, creating a three dimensional character who was the most fully realised of the quartet. Lisa-marie Hunt grew into her character as the play progressed and, if I found Annie’s rather bolted-on vocal mishaps more clunky and unconvincing than humorous, Lisa-marie rose above them to create a very ‘flesh and blood’ character from the script. Sara Ashton’s Janet Meller was another sturdy and realistic character study which gave an honesty and depth to the production and the ladies received top flight direction from Geoff Baron. The resulting exploration of some - admittedly rather over-done - themes through the development of the ladies’ finding themselves worked well through the character studies on display. The ‘Arts Club way’ with material of this sort continues to be a source of great strength to the society as a whole and if there has been perhaps an over reliance on ploughing some fairly similar dramatic furrows of late, there’s no denying that the the Arts Club talent available can usually add a lustre to any dramatic material. The end result in this case was honest, heartfelt and professional. 

My thanks to all at Gibraltar Street for the customary warm welcome, hospitality and for keeping the flame of art alive in District 3. I look forward to the next season’s choices eagerly. 

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