Night Out At: Lettice and Lovage
Lettice and Lovage at The Carlton Little Theatre, Birkenhead. Directed by Mike Sanders.
The Carlton Players' latest play was somewhat of a historical offering with a run of 5 nights. A comedy with a few very important messages underlying it: the importance of preserving history and culture, working in harmony with each other, and celebrating your uniqueness. The right people will find you. Not judging a book by its cover. It was a long play with 3 intervals, no less. The set was divine, and the two leads, Katy Downes as Lettice and Paula Condliffe-Hughes as Lotte Shoen, were perfectly cast. There were lots of lines, and they each pulled it off with aplomb. In the shadow of the Second World War, as people with French and German heritage respectively, the characters each found a way to find common ground. Lettice meaning joy, Shoen (or Shon) meaning happy. Not a coincidence by the writer, I feel.
The first scenes with the tourists in a historical building with Lettice as a tour guide were a joy to watch, complete with a crying baby. The tourists gave fabulous expressions as Lettice gradually made the stories of the history of the building more dramatic to keep them interested.
The costumes were spectacular. Standout for me were Lettice’s yellow tights, a nod to Malvolio in Twelfth Night, the comic, and Lady Macbeth’s nightdress and Mary Queen of Scots' red ‘death dress’ she wore on the day of her execution. Very Kate Bush. I loved it! The two main characters' costumes appeared to be color-coded in fitting with their characters, Lettice in earthy and regal colors and Lottie mostly in black and white.
It was clear Lettice didn’t fit in, and like the characters she portrayed performing Shakespeare's history plays with her mother, some people are just meant for more. Yet it was clear when she was summoned to Miss Shoen’s office, she knew her history; she was simply trying to make it more interesting. The scenes were pithy, fizzy, and vibrant, and another great casting was the long-suffering secretary Miss Framer, played by Debbie Smith, even having a drinks trolley putting me in mind of Victoria Wood’s Acorn Antiques. It was abundantly clear through her acting that she was swept away by Miss Douffet's fantastical tales, if not a little scared of her.
Mr. Bardolph (Falstaff's sidekick, coincidentally in Henry the Fifth and Miss Douffet’s favorite character) was wonderful and very serious and deadpan, perfectly setting off the glorious comic interplay between the two main characters. Miss Douffet even had a Falstaff chair which both she and Miss Shoen both sat in at different points. He was there as her brief after the historical reenactment of Charles the First’s execution went horribly wrong. He was desperately trying to join in on the reimagining of the reenactment of the ‘crime scene’, and one could really feel his sheer terror, but by the end, he was clearly really enjoying coming out of his shell, albeit briefly, which was very satisfying for the audience. It was all a farce, really. Lots of misunderstandings, and I won’t give too much away, but Felina of the sorrows (the cat of Miss Douffet) was right at the center. But as Miss Douffet herself says, “Without danger, there is no theatre.” As actors, we work with objectives of the character to get what they want, so in a sense, that is absolutely true.
It’s clear by the end that Miss Shoen is a performer, although she wouldn’t admit it. She doesn’t like theatre but likes spunk. And both adore old buildings. The things that bind them surpass their seeming differences, and there were some really tender moments between the two, not least because they were both unemployed at various points.
The set, as well as the costumes themselves, were characters in themselves, and there was such impressive attention to detail. Not gone unnoticed by me was the summer hat nonchalantly strewn over the moose’s head (a nod to the fact that despite Miss Douffet's love and reverence of history, she was never going to fit in any box). The bookcases, the statues of warriors on horses, and posters of various plays.
A lot of the ornaments were also in twos, a nod to the two main characters. The glorious drinking goblets and the drinking jug. We saw them both vulnerable at various points, despite their bravado, which the actors did so well. There were some really tender moments.
So in the end, deciding to join together as a team as “Eyesore Negation Detachment Tours or END. Miss Douffet becomes the “tour guide to disgusting buildings“ and Miss Shoen becomes the organizer.
Another casualty of war is the buildings and the history and culture which hit home even more so in the midst of all the conflict in the world right now, and also very poignant is that the theatre, because of its existence, is helping protect a Presbyterian Church by inhabiting its building after the war.
covered by, Clare Mcgrath