AMATEUR THEATRE REVIEW: Ladies In Lavender - The Lyceum Theatre, Oldham.

The latest offering at Oldham's Lyceum Theatre, is this slow-moving and gentle look at the between-wars life of two elderly spinsters living together on the Cornish coast. Their somewhat mundane and regular life is interrupted one morning by the discovery of a male body lying washed up, on the beach. They take him into their home and with the help of the local doctor this young Polish man (shipwrecked on his way to America) makes a full recovery and changes their lives for ever. 

A decent attempt by both the writer (Shaun McKenna) and the director (Carol Davies) was made to try and add some mystery and suspense into this story. Given the time in which the play is set  (1936-7), as well as the fact that there is not just this young Pole who speaks German, but also a very mysterious lone female, ostensibly a painter on holiday, watching him, and she is also quite obviously foreign too...! However, for reasons best known to McKenna, none of this is developed and the characters are all exactly who they say they are, and there's absolutely no mystery in it whatsoever. 

The play demands 5 differing locations with very short scenes in each, cutting back and forth, and so the Lyceum's set design team needed to surpass themselves on this occasion. The stage, for those of you unfamiliar with the Lyceum, does not take the name 'Little Theatre' lightly, as the performance area is very limited with hardly any backstage too, and so creativity is always the order of the day. However, the set design team always seem to work miracles, and I don't know how they do it! The five locations were all clearly defined and the set worked wonderfully. A split-level cottage with garden and ample room at the front for a path and sea view. The set was dressed appropriately and contemporaneously, and even the music chosen for the audience to be seated to was excellently chosen (Rimsky-Korsakov of course!)

The action of the play however starts with a whimper rather than a bang. Again we have to look at McKenna for this, but unfortunately this sets the tenure for the entire play, and we only really move out of second gear in the second act when Lisa Kay's portrayal of a very forthright and comedic maid Dorcas springs to life.

Lyceum stalwarts Sue Radcliffe and Pauline Walsh play the sisters (Janet and Ursula respectively), with a deal of of-the-time courtesy and decorum, whilst still bickering with each other the way that siblings are wont to do. It was a shame that neither had an authentic Cornish accent, as that would have been the icing on the cake, but standard RP worked just as well. The cast was completed by Matthew Hutchinson as the violinist Andrea Marowski, Andrew Wilson as the lusting Dr Mead, and Gill Barham as the aloof and yet sincere Olga Danilof. 

The dynamics within the play were nicely handled and the laugh lines never given too much weight in order that the story may flow evenly and realistically. However, it is a long play, and one in which very little actually happens, and so the performances really have to be top notch in order to sustain interest. In this respect it is a very difficult play for any amateur company to handle, and so one must praise the Lyceum for this. If any local company can pull it off, then the Lyceum can.

Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 28.11.22