Show: Our Lady Of Blundellsands
Format: Play
Genre: Comedy Drama
Writer: Jonathan Harvey
Director: Nick Bagnall
Set & Costume Design: Janet Bird
Lighting Designer: Chris Davey
Sound Designer: Ian Davies
Fight Director: Kevin McCurdy
Casting Director: Sophie Parrott CDG
Cast: Annette Badland, Gemma Brodrick, Matt Henry, Josie Lawrence, Tony Maudsley & Nathan McMullen
Review Date: March 10 2020
Performances: March 6-28 2020
Location: Everyman Theatre, Liverpool
Duration: 140 Minutes incl. Interval
Age Rating: 14+
Step inside the mad house with Jonathan Harvey’s 25th stage play, Our Lady of Blundellsands, at Liverpool’s Everyman Theatre. In the initially sheltered home of Garnet and Sylvie, celebrations switch to revelations and secrets, fantasises are uncovered. As the family members fight to be accepted by each other, audience members consider their own treatment of family, friends and ask the question, who is going to look after me when I am old? Despite sibling rivalries, the hope of new life powers through. Will relationships change for the better?
Our Lady Of Blundellsands
Synopsis
Our Lady Of Blundellsands begins with Sylvie (Josie Lawrence) sitting centre stage as she humorously presents her visionary radio show whilst she indulges in a glass of Pinot Grigio and a cigarette. In enters her sister, Garnet (Annette Badland) carrying shopping bags. As Garnet unpacks her shopping, Sylvie is evidently anxious as the audience learn she has timed her sister at the shops, something Garnet is not surprised by, and questions her on where she has been.
Next to arrive is Alyssa (Gemma Brodrick) Lee Lee’s girlfriend. Alyssa reluctantly listens to Sylvie repeating stories from her youth. Sylvie claims that despite the twenty-year age gap both her sons Mickey-Joe (Tony Maudsley) and Lee Lee (Nathan McMullen) have the same father comically stating her ‘intimacies were irregular but consistent’. She is excited to see Lee Lee and quizzes Alyssa on her son’s progress. A strong sense of foreboding is felt when Alyssa withholds. Also, Sylvie proudly recalls her biggest achievement, performing to Z-Cars as a child. Garnet becomes aggravated listening to her sister’s stories and has an accident whilst chopping vegetables for the pie she is making.
Retreat
Sylvie retreats upstairs to change and after much persuasion, Garnet heads off to A&E accompanied by Alyssa. A private conversation between the two informs the audience Garnet has some important information for her family. Mickey-Joe and his boyfriend Frankie (Matt Henry) arrive to an empty living room and Christmas music playing. Sylvie disregards Garnet’s birthday and prefers to think of it as Christmas. Later in the play, the harsh reasons behind her hatred for her sister’s birthday unfold.
The eldest son Mickey-Joe and Frankie constantly bicker until interrupted by Sylvie who is elated to see ‘Frankie the Fetus’ as she refers to him however not so much Mickey-Joe. Finally, the favourite son Lee Lee enters looking visibly shifty. With all children present and Garnet, Alyssa back from the hospital the birthday party commences. As Our Lady of Blundellsands advances, the family learn of ill health, relationship issues and crime.
Analysis
Our Lady of Blundellsands features six astounding performers in collaboration with an equally exceptional company. The audience often laugh at comments from Sylvie enacted by Josie Lawrence, notable as the queen of improvisation but also for her experience in serious drama. Although Sylvie provides great comical moments, our laughter comes from her burning desperation as in some ways similar to Blanche DuBois in Streetcar, Sylvie yearns for a lifestyle that she will never attain. Tony Maudsley also gives an amusing yet heart-breaking performance as Mickey-Joe transforms into his drag persona, Crystal Fist just in time for the party. Maudsley excellently portrays Mickey-Joe’s feelings of rejection and love deprivation. The audience also gets a snippet of Matt Henry’s Olivier standard hip isolations as Frankie dances alongside Sylvie.
Heavy influence from Janet Bird as set and costume designer holds mass significance in this success. Sylvie appears in numerous unique kaftans. The thrust stage living room is home to numerous different objects and gives the effect the household freezes in time. Towards the end, the audience witness changes to both set and costume conveying character and plot developments. Nick Bagnall squeezes such raw emotion from the original story. Once again, Bagnall triumphs using the force of suggestion in order to accomplish a shocking, slightly bittersweet conclusion.
Summary Of Our Lady Of Blundellsands
More than two decades since his last commission at the Everyman, Harvey offers witty one-liners voiced by frenzied characters incarcerated in complex relationships. The thought-provoking Our Lady Of Blundellsands is accessible to adults of all ages as the Domingo family spans each generation. Much to the audience’s delight, Liverpool writer Jonathan Harvey bundles many Liverpool references which will leave patrons reminiscing. I am most certainly ‘ob-sessed’!
Notes
Target Audience: Ages 14+
Content: Frequent Strong Language
Recommendation?: Yes
Overall Rating: 10/10 – Perfect
Our Lady Of Blundellsands Further Link
So, Our Lady Of Blundellsands runs at the Everyman Theatre until Saturday March 28. To buy tickets, click here or call 0151 709 4776.
