REVIEW: A Passionate Woman at The Everyman Theatre
This year’s home production from the Everyman Theatre comes back to the present day and is an adaption written by Kay Mellor.
Betty Derbyshire (Liza Goddard) has one son, Mark (Antony Eden), and today is his wedding day. Instead of preening her only son before sending him off to his new life she disappears from the family preparations and retreats into the attic of the family home. Here she travels back in time on a nostalgic journey and unleashes forgotten feelings of an affair she had nearly 40 years ago with her enigmatic neighbour ‘Craze” (Hasan Dixon). Betty’s frantic son appears to try and coax his mother down (once she has been located), but she is completely lost in the past and talking to her long lost lover. Is he a ghost or just in her mind? Who knows, but the subsequent conversation is witty and full of humour.
The second half sees Betty's husband Donald (Russell Dixon) trying to bring his wife to her senses, but things seem to turn from bad to worse.
Betty is portrayed as a woman in a tedious marriage for 40 years to a man who shows her little affection, as confirmed by their son. The laughs in the first half were from the women in the audience as some obviously identified with Betty and her humdrum life, but when Donald appeared they were louder from the men in the audience, the tables are turned. It’s a story that has affected all three members of this family in different ways.
Liza Goddard is superb as Betty and each character will remind you of someone you know; the performances from all the cast were excellent. It was intriguing to finally see the set and its design was perfect for the performance. The final scene was unexpected, but so funny.
A Passionate Woman is heading off on tour when it finishes its run in Cheltenham. We feel sure that it will do extremely well.
A Passionate Woman runs until Saturday 25 February 2017 at the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham
Tour dates:
- 28 February – 4 March: Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield
- 7 – 11 March: Theatre Royal, Northampton
- 14 - 18 March: Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford
- 21 - 25 March: Northcott Theatre, Exeter
- 28 March – 1 April: Malvern Theatres, Malvern
- 4 – 8 April: West Yorkshire Playhouse
Photo credit: Antony Thompson, Thousand Word Media
Explore Gloucestershire
18 February 2017
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