22 July 2008

The Female of the Species by Joanna Murray-Smith

Margo - Eileen Atkins
Molly - Anna Maxwell Martin
Tess - Sophie Thompson
Bryan - Paul Chahidi
Frank - Con O'Neill
Theo - Sam Kelly

Directed by Roger Michell
Designed by Mark Thompson

Seen at the lovely cuddly Vaudeville Theatre (some of the nicest Box Office staff in the whole of the 'old school' West End) at a ridiculously cheap offer from Ticketmaster in D15.

In the audience Mr & Mrs Trevor Eve, Timothy West, Greta Scacchi (turns out she was hot-foot from RIchard & Judy's


I guess you'd call this a modern farce. Funny, a bit shrieky, very witty. Sophie Thompson managed to remain within a hair's breadth of being annoying with her downtrodden neurosis. In fact, it didn't seem neurotic because her delivery made all of Tess's issues seem utterly plausible and understandable. Eileen camped it up deliciously and had the joy of being the only cast member to dress up, rather than down. it's not something she gets to do very often as she is so good in the more down trodden roles. Anna was good and I have not seen her quite so forceful before.

Con was lovely (but I am biased) and I couldn't find a production photo but I had to include this - from rehearsal video.