The Boadicea of Britannia Street

The Boadicea of Brottania Street... a play performed by Southport Dramatic Club, on Saturday, 28th January 2023 at Southport Little Theatre, Hoghton Street, Southport.

‘The Boadicea of Britannia Street’ is a funny, emotive play penned by Ade Morris. The story is about four women who come together at a ‘creative writing class’.  All are attending the class for totally different reasons, all from totally different backgrounds, all with deep rooted and guarded secrets, all of whom take us on individual, yet collective, emotional journeys!  From an unpromising beginning and over the course of a few weeks, the ‘Winkham Rebels’ as they call themselves, formulate plans to write and perform a play inspired by the courage of Boadicea, but ‘life’ keeps getting in the way!  So, after consuming a lot of tea and vodka, they all now have to face their own demons, overcome their enemies, in an attempt to move on as friends....   

Production Team …  at the helm for this production, we had Amy Palmer-Farrer (Director) who was making her directional debut and Lynne Hawksworth (Assistant Director).  Amy and Lynne had pulled together a strong, enthusiastic, and well-rehearsed cast who, as soon as the lights came up, were ready and willing to perform!  We had four great individual characters created, all with their own stories to tell and four individual actors who worked extremely well together... Congrats to Amy and Lynn… good job, be proud!

Having listened to many people chatting before the show and talking to a few others, I got the feeling that I was probably one of a very few present that night who’d actually seen this play before.  I saw it way back in July 2019 and although I remember enjoying it… the details were a little hazy… but as the plot started tounfold so did the memory…

“Let’s talk Cast” …   at this point, in most of my reviews, I start identifying ‘favourites’ and 'show stealers'... but I think for this play to be the success that it was, is less about ‘show stealers’ and ‘individual performances’, although they are important, but it was more about the ‘collectiveness’ and ‘chemistry’ within the cast, but having said that and never being one to ‘sit on the fence’, I will give a ‘shout out’ to MY personal ‘favourite character’ at the end!  So, forming this group was ‘Fran’ played ever so well by Wendy Cox. ‘Fran’s’ journey is one of ‘active journalist’ to ‘lonely widow’ living alone after the death of her husband. Unable to have children and now dealing with a second bout of cancer, she sees her life fading away. In an attempt to ‘add’ some sparkle back to the everyday grind, she decides to form a ‘creative writing group’.  Wendy took this part and made it her own!  Confident, emotional, loved the characterisation, the looks and the mannerisms, which she produced throughout.  Great diction and stage presence, worked really well with and alongside the other cast members, although I did get a little worried with the ‘Gin’… looked far too natural Wendy (ahahah) ... be ever so proud, great job!   Beth RUSHBY played the part of ‘Penny’, a panicked PE Teacher, whose occupation is apparently borne out of the ‘fear of alcoholism’, who hates children, who hasn’t got time to read books, who finds herself pregnant after a ‘brief affair’ with the Head of Maths, a pregnancy that she is unable to tell her mother about!  ‘Penny’ narrates this ‘play’ throughout by telling everyone’s story through her own eyes!  Beth was the ‘perfect fit’ for this role...  stage presence aplenty, great diction, good story telling, a really well-judged performance... again be ever so proud!  Lisa Tatler was a late replacement to the role of ‘Janet’ the shy, quiet, retiring, vegetarian librarian… that was until she gained enough confidence to ‘leave the closet’ and inform the group that she was a lesbian.  You would never have guessed that Lisa hadn’t been there from the start, she brought us a really well-judged believable performance, another with great stage presence who looked totally comfortable throughout and the scene with Anne when she persuades her to kiss, looked natural, totally believable and was handled really well.... well done, Lisa… be proud, great job!   The final member of our disparate quartet and another late replacement was Cath Fisher who took on the role of Annie. Annie’s journey is a real emotional rollercoaster from housewife and mother of two grown-up kids to ‘abused woman’ living in a broken marriage with Keith, her cruel husband, who beats her!  There was little or no doubt that it was Annie’s optimism and her past life experiences that ‘galvanises’ this group and encourages them to form the ‘Winkham Rebels’.  Cath’s interpretation of Annie was excellent ... confident, vulnerable at times, great characterisation, great stage presence, her ability to repeatedly mispronounce words was impressive and that provided us with some great comedic moments! She also gave us some real emotional moments as well… especially when relating to her ‘Safe Place’ and the story about her grandmother - be ever so proud Cath, wonderful job and as promised… my ‘shout-out’ and MY favourite character!

Staging/Set/Tech a basic set was used throughout to create the interior of Winkham Memorial Institute. This provided a suitable/fitting stage for the actors to perform. The projected video (created by Paul Shacksmyth-Claire) used at the start of the play was superb and enhanced the play from the start!  Congrats to Tom Ashcroft (Stage Management), Pete Beswick and Graeme Hunt (Assistant Stage Managers). The Set Design was by Pete Beswick, with Bob Jessamine (Set Artist) and the SDC Construction Team in charge of building the set!   Sound and Lighting, which is always first rate here at the Little Theatre, was in the hands of Chris Ratcliffe and ‘Team LX’ respectively.   

Props… were apt, pertinent to each particular scene and used really well throughout … under the watchful eye of Sam Ashton, Phil Povey, Becky Collingham, Dave Cox and Paul-James Green.

Wardrobe… Diane Ogden was tasked with looking after the costumes which were perfect for this production.  Congrats Diane!

There was a tribute listed in the Director’s programme notes where Amy had dedicated the performance to Lynn Hurley, her mum, who sadly passed away one week before opening night… RIP Lynn.

Thanks once again for inviting my wife and I we thoroughly enjoyed the production, hope to see you all again soon!

Stay safe and keep well…
‘STRONGER TOGETHER’

Jim Briscoe
NODA North West
District 6 Rep

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