It was a pleasure to return to the Little Theatre for the first time since the pandemic struck. It is a small but intimate venue and you are close to the action wherever you are sitting. Thank you to the volunteers for their help and welcome. Sale And Altrincham Musical Theatre Company [SAMT] is an established and well respected local amateur company, so it is great to see that they have restarted performing after an understandably lengthy hiatus.
I was most impressed with the set design – a dingy rented flat in an unnamed northern England town, in the mid 1990s – with its two levels: a living room/kitchen with steps which led to the bedroom occupied by the title character. Little Voice, or LV as she is often referred to even by her own mother – was sensitively played by Kate Darlington. She handled the musical aspects of the piece really well – more of that later – and most certainly engendered the sympathy of the audience. LV is haunted by the death of her father, only finding some solace thanks to his extensive LP collection, primarily consisting of old style female vocalists. She barely communicates with her erratic and unpredictable mother Mari (Vikki Bullar). Mari seems to just have one friend, the hilariously dippy Sadie (Janice Rendel).
At the beginning of the play, Mari flirts with the two engineers who are installing a telephone, one of whom is painfully shy Billy (Mark Rendel). Billy meets LV and finds a kindred spirit. The highlight of promiscuous and alcoholic Mari's life are her visits to the club owned by the comically unfunny Mr Boo (Stuart Sephton). There she meets and starts an affair with Ray Say (Bob Etherington). Ray Say manages third rate acts and artistes and is always on the lookout for a talent who will make his fortune. Unsurprisingly, when he and Mr Boo hear the fabulous impersonations of female songstresses by LV, they spy their chance and easily persuade Mari to let LV perform at the club. Her initial attempt to sing in public doesn't go well and she retreats to the sanctuary of her bedroom. I won't spoil things by saying any more about the plot, other than it is a good mixture of poignancy, sadness, humour and hope.
I am fairly familiar with the (perhaps much more famous) film which starred Jane Horrocks, Michael Caine, Brenda Blethyn and Jim Broadbent. However, I've not seen the play version performed before. To be truthful, I only have two minor criticisms of this particular production. Firstly, I really struggled to hear and understand Mari in the opening scene although, as a counterpoint to this, her character is immediately shown to the audience and she definitely relaxed into the role as the play wore on. Secondly, and this may be a directorial choice, I felt that Ray Say was somewhat underplayed. I had expected to see a much nastier and more unpleasant man, someone who would make you cringe every time he appeared. All the actors looked the part though, thanks to good and appropriate costume choices.
Kate Darlington has a fine singing voice which everyone present enjoyed hearing. Whilst LV was undoubtedly the star of the show, I also really liked the portrayal of Billy and Sadie in particular.
The scene changes between the flat and the club were slickly handled; the stage hands made light work of any required adjustments and kept the action flowing at a good pace. The lighting and sound effects were also well constructed and effective.
In conclusion, I can recommend the production which runs nightly until Saturday April the 2nd, starting at 7:30pm.
Reviewer - David Swift
on - 30.3.22
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