Writer: Louisa May Alcott
Adapter: Anne-Marie Casey
Director: Loveday Ingram
Adapting a full-length novel into a two-hour play is always a tricky business, but Little Women is trickier than most. Beginning with the four March girls in their high-spirited glory, it gradually fragments into separate stories whilst still keeping the Massachusetts home as the lode-star of their existence. Jo is determined to make a name for herself as a writer – and by a clever trick we see her writing Little Women in Little Women. Meg, the eldest and most responsible, works as a governess and ultimately marries. Amy who hates being poor, dreams of being an artist, but abandons that in marriage to a rich man. The youngest Beth, who desires to stay at home with her music, dies – an event that is prefigured in novel and play.
So the long first half is really an ensemble piece, beginning with the four girls at rumbustious play being interrupted by Marmee with a reminder of their privileged position: she has been taking food to a genuinely poor family. Before that the play begins with the sounds of the battlefield – very appropriate as one of Alcott’s great skills is depicting ordinary life into which the Civil War constantly intrudes, notably in the Reverend March signing up as an army chaplain and being wounded.
The shorter second half is quite different. Jo goes to New York, works, writes and meets German Professor Bhaer. Amy goes to Europe with their rich Aunt March. Beth appears only in an affecting pre-death scene with Jo, an indication of Alcott’s feelings for her sister Elizabeth. The first half sets the scene with the furniture of the Marches’ house, trees encroaching, Christmas trees wheeled in an out as Christmases succeed each other. In the second New York is represented by two book shelves and lights from tall buildings; an ornate curtain does for the high life that Amy is enjoying. Then, towards the end, as Jo is writing the first section of the book. her sisters give merry twirling life to her words, dressed as they were at the beginning.
Anne-Marie Casey has produced an adaptation that is wonderfully true to the book, not least its serious side: the war of course, Jo’s forthright feminism, Christianity expressed through good deeds (Beth’s ill-fated mission to the poor, for instance) – the understated music organised by Matthew Bugg is full of hints of Christian hymns and Northern patriotism.
Loveday Ingram’s direction is stylish, with occasional problems in absorbing the material into a coherent whole. The early stages, though based on the book, are a bit too hectic, but calm ensues.
Grace Molony is Jo to the life: awkward, but devotedly kind, unsure of her own emotions, determined above all to become a writer, even if it means turning out shockers to establish herself. Jade Kennedy (Meg), Catherine Chalk (Beth) and Imogen Elliott (Amy) are a vivid grouping, with Elliott shining in her excursion into the high life. As Laurie Cillian Lenaghan covers all the bases from boisterous boy to forlorn lover to prosperous businessman while still suggesting his basic irresponsibility and Jack Ashton comes up with a memorable double (Brooke and Bhaer), managing to marry two March sisters! His Professor Bhaer captures beautifully the comic/pathetic that gradually fades to reveal his true self.
Sadly Honeysuckle Weeks is indisposed for this week, but Ellie Pawsey is a more than capable replacement as Marmee. Belinda Lang is the formidable (and rich) Aunt March, a little too formidable at times, introducing a touch of caricature into the production – or is that partly in the writing, with Aunt March appearing suddenly and dramatically at unlikely junctures?
Nevertheless it’s remarkably true to Louisa May Alcott’s original concept and leaves one with total respect for her – an American Mrs Gaskell?
Runs until 14th June 2025, before continuing on tour
