REVIEW: Persuasion - The Playhouse, Liverpool.

Firstly, a confession. I'm not a big Austen fan and I've never read the original novel nor have I seen a film or TV adaptation. Speaking frankly, and on behalf of the friend I was with (who is much more knowledgeable than me), I struggled with a lot of the nuances of the piece because there seemed to be an assumption that the audience would be well aware of the book and its setting; that book being Jane Austen's 'Persuasion', adapted for the stage here by Stephanie Dale and presented by Theatre 6 at Liverpool's Playhouse. That aside, this was a very slick production as you'd expect from a professional show. The scene changes were cleverly interwoven with all the cast involved in rather than using stage hands. The costumes were superb and entirely appropriate for the era. The lead actor, Ceri-Lyn Cissone, was excellent as Anne Elliot. A demanding role requiring her to be a very accomplished pianist and she was faultless. The other 5 actors multi-roled which was very confusing at times, especially in the first act and particularly because the same actor (Jason Ryall) took on the parts of Wentworth, Anne's love interest AND her distant cousin, Mr Elliot! He was good as Wentworth but I didn't warm to him at all as Mr Elliot. Apart from Cissone, the standout performer was Lucinda Turner as Mary, Mrs Clay and Lady Russell. She owned the stage whenever she was on it. Matthew Atkins’ main role was Sir Walter, Anne's father. Although he played it with some gravitas, you could clearly tell from his facial features that he was too young for this despite the presence of some grey hair (presumably a wig) and a period moustache. All the actors' standard English "RP" (received pronunciation as it is called in the profession) was excellent, but their diction and clarity wavered somewhat when a character needed a different accent. All cast members also played one or more instruments to a good standard but the music was at times distracting to the dialogue, particularly during the monologues. My biggest issue with this production was the fact that the unusually shaped but effective set was plonked right in the middle of the stage, leaving large areas virtually unused throughout. Definitely a missed opportunity to open up the stage to all the audience; perhaps it would have been better to position some of the musicians at the side; this would have been less distracting than having them on the raised area of the well lit set. In my opinion, the music was there to accompany the scene being played out. In conclusion, I'd recommend this mainly to fans of Jane Austen. The play runs until Saturday October the 13th, 7:30pm daily.

Reviewer - David Swift
on - 9/10/18