'Steel Magnolias' is a 1987 play by Robert Harling, set in a hair salon in a small town in Louisiana USA, and centres around the ill-health and ultimate death of one of this group of friends due to diabetes. The play is semi-autobiographical inasmuch as the central storyline of Shelby is based on his experiences with his sister's illness.
Made into a film starring a whole string of Hollywood A-listers, the play (ie, the film) entered cult status, and remains a favourite to this day, as it is (at least in it's play form) performed entirely by these six strong and characterful women. Even the title of the play suggests the characters we are about to meet on stage. Magnolia is the State flower of Louisiana, and is delicate and pretty, whilst steel suggests something harder, more permanent, and indeed strong and forthright. You have, in these two words, a microcosm of the characters of the six women friends who gather regularly in this salon.
Directed by Anthony Banks, this production utilised the combined talents of six actresses who worked excellently as an ensemble. In my own head I had likened them to a school of fish... all doing their own thing, but coming together as one when danger strikes, and yet, they were not all the same species of fish, and sometimes changed species half-way through. We went from flounder to pyranha in a simple change of scene. Their ensemble work therefore, was formidable. Individually, their characters were somewhat weaker; I think perhaps they were trying to emulate the characterisations from the film (?), and perhaps not being given enough leeway to explore their own way through these characters. Whatever the case, the dialogue was at times difficult to hear. Not just myself, but several theatregoers around me were also saying that sometimes the speaking was too quiet and we were having to strain to catch what was being said. Again, if you are familiar with the film, and know what to expect, your understanding (and hearing) of the lines is automatically clearer. And to be fair, there were many in this evening's audience laughing in all the right places.
Another thing which didn't really help this production was the pace at which it was set. The set design (Laura Hopkins) gave us a realistic 1980's hair salon within what could easily have been a small TV screen in the centre of the Lowry's huge stage. Lamps, cables, and rigging adorned the rest of this vast space. The acting therefore looked cramped and stymied, although there did seem ample room for the cast to work with. The pace throughout was somewhat monotonous and rarely did the dynamics change. The entrance of Clairee (Caroline Harker) towards the end of the first scene lifted the pace and made us sit up and beg, but only momentarily; whilst the transformation of Annelle (Elizabeth Ayodele) from shy out-of-town hick to sassy party-goer in the second act had a similar momentary effect. The rest of the play took a slow downhill spiral to the tragic denouement. The denouement however was handled superbly, and despite my not being truly engaged in the play until that point, M'Lynn's (Laura Main) long speeches about her daughter in the final scene did bring a lump to my throat.
The cast gave us a varying array of accents, despite them all being from Louisiana, with one sounding distinctly upper middle-class English with the occasional word being given a southern style drawl.
Having never seen the film, and taking this play on it's own merits, it was an interesting if slightly pedestrian production which I feel would appeal to and resonate far more with the middle-aged female audience member than it did with myself.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 21.2.23
on - 21.2.23
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