An evening in the 1950s was what was on offer in PADOS’s little gem of a theatre as they performed their 2023 play season opening show of Laura Wade’s Olivier-award-winning play in their adaptable and flexible bijoux space. The set was as tempting as a home cooked dinner. Tempting and tantalising the audience before the play began. Like a work of art. It was impeccably placed in the 1950s with furniture from Stumberlina Vintage And Retro shop, with props and stage dressing by the imaginative Claire Heywood. An incredible amount of thought, effort, detail and precision had been placed upon this key element of the production and I could have happily sat and gazed at the set for a long while, admiring it's kitsch nuanced style. It was stunning.
As a patron of PADOS for the last quarter of a century, I have seen their production team magically transform this 'tardis' into a plethora of times and places but this one really was the cherry on the top of the sundae. I don’t have enough adjectives to describe it but it was sublime.
The play revolves around Judy and Johnny; an ordinary couple who make a decision (after Judy is made redundant) to indulge and live Judy’s fantasy lifestyle as a '50’s housewife, wearing '50’s clothes and completely living a '50’s life in a '50’s style house with Judy completely denouncing her previous identity as a graduate professional and regressing to extinct gender roles. You know the cliché, "Darling. I’m home"? Well, Judy is THAT woman. She of the pinny and floral dress with a smile and rouged cheeks, light chat and a hot, cooked dinner on the table ready to brighten her husband’s toil and to relieve him of his burdens and live for making him happy. This is until the cracks in their life, marriage, roles and relationships start to reveal a deeper, fundamental truth of real honesty, values and expectations versus reality. Happiness, it would appear, is not all it is cracked up to be, especially when the same basic challenge factors crop up in the 1950’s house as in the 2023 home: economics, fidelity and connection with the world along with maintaining a 50 year old SMEG fridge with higher running costs than a luxury car.
My take on the play's theme was that although it was superficially tongue-in-cheek and had its fair share of witty banter and cheese, it was a deftly written feminist narrative questioning if the gender gap had really closed. At the end, I felt unsure about Johnny and Judy’s future after their reconciliation.
The play is a six-hander and PADOS had a super cast. Judy was in the delicate, loving hands of Amelia Newman who looked perfect for the part and owned it. She was controlled and her smile hid her sadness and disappointment with a painted veneer. She was beautiful, elegant and had a lovely, chirpy disposition which fitted my notion of fake, frothy and fifties housewife from the posters and handbooks of ‘how to be a great housewife’ I’ve seen. She reminded me of Samantha in B’Witched – remember her? She was well partnered by her Johnny, Rob Butler, who was nervy enough to believe that he wasn’t fully satisfied with the commitment to the fantasy life and had yearning, needs and desires of his own which were unmet. They played well together after a slow start in scene one, and their final scene of slow dancing was gentle, intimate and connected. I loved their last breakfast scene as a coda to the play; flirty, fun and like the end of a well-loved show. Director, Alex Cohen (last seen on stage as Dewey Finn in PADOS’ School Of Rock in April), had clear vision and had deftly directed his actors. The blocking and staging were perfect. He didn’t miss a beat. He had drawn out subtle relationships with all the characters and sub-characters and this shone through. Costuming by Bell Costumes had the costumes spot on and Emma Kavanagh's hair and make up was a joy to look at.
The couple’s friends, Fran and Marcus, played by Lisa Lott and Rob Livesey, had lots of fun with their roles. Fran had a deadpan delivery and Marcus’s leery Act 2 play for Judy really was unexpected and well played. Judy’s mum, Sylvia, was in the safe and secure hands of experienced theatre stalwart Shirley Harrison; who is looking a lot like Victoria Woods these days. Her monologue, questioning the reality of 1950’s housewifery, was delivered with aplomb and I wanted to clap and/or cry it was so profound. Lastly, Johnny’s new boss Alex (a woman) was given lots of energy and sass by Jordan Lawler. She looked great and had wonderful facial expressions and interacted well with both Judy and Johnny. In the dialogue, it says she is younger but age is just a number for actors and I think directorially it was played too young by Jordan to be the manager of an estate agents. However, Alex’s ‘ick’ reaction to Judy asking her in a Jolene plea to not take her man, was just too young and lost believability in that scene.
I was expecting a comedy but instead it had light moments and laughs but mostly was a thinking, challenging piece for male and female roles, personal choices and being careful of what you wish for. The use of music to underpin the narrative and demarcate plot points in and out of scenes was wonderful and the dancing and choreography was joyful, entertaining and totally in keeping with the piece and performed really well by the cast. There were so many lovely moments in the play. But, I will go back to the start of my review and the splendid set was the thing that I will take away. It was stunning. Huge congratulations to all of the technical crew, set design, staging, lighting and sound. It was a triumph.
If this is the start of the season, PADOS, then it’s going to be a very exciting few months. Playing until Saturday at PADOS House, Prestwich. Grab a ticket, if you can.
Reviewer - Kathryn Gorton
on - 5.10.23
on - 5.10.23
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