Writer: Peter Quiller
Director: Stephen Mear
Dame Maureen Lipman returns to the Stage for the first time in twenty years at the age of Eighty for this UK Tour of a new Peter Quilter play, Allegra. She is best known to many in the audience perhaps in the Eighties for the TV advert for British Telecom in which she played Beattie and also for her role as an agony aunt in the sitcom Agony (1979-81). More recently she has starred in Coronation Street as Evelyn Plummer. Yet she has plenty of stage experience and her long and successful career has earned her National Treasure status. It was a pleasure to see her full of energy and stage presence to fill the title role in this play.
Quiller has already proved himself an accomplished playwright with his brilliant play about the last days of the iconic Judy Garland, End of the Rainbow and more recently the quirky tale of Glorious! about Florence Foster Jenkins which completes its UK tour in Mold this month. All three plays feature women for whom music was their life. While Rainbow focused on Garland’s final live performances in London on the edge of a nervous breakdown and Glorious! celebrated Jenkins performance at the spectacular Carnegie Hall in New York, the music of Allegra is sometimes just in her head.
When Allegra bursts into song in public locations around her local town, it brings the police to her door with complaints about the disturbances and drugs to suppress her irresistible urge to sing. It seems an unlikely scenario but sets up a series of slightly bonkers fantasy sequences around a narrative which has moments of great comedy, moments of sadness and poignancy and huge flights of fancy dance routines. The action stops, the fourth wall is broken and Allegra bursts into Tiptoe through the tulips, Singin’ in the rain, and Take me out to the Ball Game as the sets comes alive with projected images and comedy props. These moments provide the show highlights and convey the simple joy and release that Allegra feels with music, even if it only in her head. Her public disturbances are simply sharing the joy with those around her.
Her devoted brother, Ronen (John Middleton) is caring and worried about her. Is she eating enough? Is she taking her tablets? How can she control her outbursts but retain her joyous outlook? He hires Czech Republic care assistant Anna (Elizabeth Bower) to keep an eye on her and she works tirelessly cleaning surfaces and supporting Allegra. The atmosphere in the household is relentlessly upbeat and energetic until the policeman, Rogers, (Bailey Patrick) starts taking the complaints more seriously. Along the way there are plenty of funny lines that sum up Allegra’s outlook. “Getting up at 3pm is a reasonable time”. “You used to work for a lady who died, Did you kill her?”. “Unhappiness is the new normal”. “Some people do cocaine, some do cabaret, it’s a crime that it is the singing that gets up people’s noses”. These lines define her different outlook on life, and question whether it is better to be relentlessly happy or resentfully lawful. Stephen Mear’s direction and chorography together with Justin Williams set, and Ben Bull’s video design sweep us into her world. While it never convinces that situation is anything other than a fanciful, whimsical device to explore that message, there is a likeability in the characters and four delightful performances to enjoy, and it will bring a smile to your face as you allow yourself to drift into Allegra’s world.
Runs on tour until 4th July
