12:53pm Tuesday 24th February 2009
THE amplified sound of a pen moving across a sheet of paper set the scene and in doing so, paid tribute to the origin of a wonderful piece of theatre at The Courtyard last week, as Foursight Theatre Company presented Can Any Mother Help Me?, a co-production with the Hereford venue.
Inspired by the letters of the Cooperative Correspondence Club and based on a small selection of those featured in Jenna Bailey’s book of the same name, this was a stunningly staged and movingly acted work that perfectly conveyed the atmosphere and tone of the letters as they appeared on the page, bringing them vividly to life.
Moving, illuminating and sometimes hilarious, especially in the story told (exaggerated, thought other CCC members) by Yonire of the evening she and a family friend, Sebastian, went in search of somewhere to play Bach, only for things to veer so out of control that she was forced to whack her companion over the head with her ‘open-toed stiletto-heeled sandal’.
Yonire’s account of “Murder in the Organ Loft, or What Would you Have Done, Chum?” comes as light relief and a cleverly judged counterpoint to the desperately sad story of Isis’s infatuation with the doctor who offers her such support when her son is diagnosed with Down’s syndrome. Her passion for the doctor has faint echoes of Celia Johnson’s for Trevor Howard in Brief Encounter, but her story takes a much darker turn when she is judged unbalanced and sent for corrective electro-convulsive treatment.
But these are just two of the more dramatic accounts included - thoughts about motherhood and marriage, war and women’s ambitions were all shared by the CCC and are woven seamlessly into a hugely watchable and engaging drama.
An inventive set - at one point a staircase on its side becomes a tea table and we watch, as if from above, a conversation over the teacups - in which three staircases are imaginatively deployed to become every woman’s home ... and an organ loft ... ensures that there is nothing static about this production.
This was wonderful ensemble playing with beautifully judged performances from all the cast, notably from Helen Cartwright as Roberta and Foursight co-founder Jill Dowse as Isis, transforming the already moving letters of the CCC into a wonderful, life-affirming piece of theatre that you should catch if you can.
Can Any Mother Help Me? will be at The Door, Birmingham REP from March 18-21; at Oxford Playhouse on March 24 and at Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury, May 11-12. For other dates on the spring tour, visit foursighttheatre.co.uk
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