Little Women – York Theatre Royal

Writer: Louisa May Alcott

Adaptor: Anne-Marie Casey

Director: Juliet Forster

Are you a Jo? Or more of a Beth? Maybe Meg is more your style. Countless discussions can still be heard across the globe, as Little Women is read and loved by each generation in turn. Written by Louisa May Alcott in two volumes in 1868 and 1869, you could be forgiven for thinking that the themes within this long and detailed story may no longer ring true for today’s modern society, but this easy-to-watch adaptation by Anne-Marie Casey proves it is not the case.

This is a warm and comfortable production, directed by Juliet Forster, that feels like putting on a cosy cardigan. The cast are all excellent, the play perfectly staged with the right amount of props and set, so the story plays out easily and the audience is free to just enjoy the characters and their relationships.

The majority of the play is seen through the eyes of second child Josephine (Jo), a wild and feisty teenager on the brink of adulthood. Freya Parks is charismatic and easy to watch in this role – in her hands Jo is likeable, irrepressible and resilient. The warmth of Jo’s relationship with younger sister Beth (Laura Soper) is successfully displayed by both actors, along with the more fractious relationship she has with her other younger sister, Amy (Helen Chong). Chong conveys Amy’s growth from petulant child with a lot to say for herself to poised young woman intelligently so that her marriage to the affluential Laurie (Nikhil Singh Rai) is entirely believable.

Mother of four girls, Marmee March is strong, caring, compassionate and kind, and Kate Hampson pulls on each of these threads throughout the play to show the strength within the character as well as the vulnerability. Hampson made connections on stage with the other actors, and with the audience too, through her body language, mannerisms and facial expressions those watching understood the hardships and struggles of a woman with four girls to bring up almost single-handedly, with very little money.

While entirely outnumbered by the female members of the cast, the two men in this production do well to support the stories of the sisters, Rai effectively portrays an affable young man with a twinkle in his eye who is in truth no match for the wilful Jo. Meanwhile Jack Ashton demonstrated his ability to play both an English tutor and a German Professor and to woo two different sisters while doing so.

Part of the charm of seeing Little Women is (if you know the story already) knowing that it will all be alright in the end, and this adaptation does nothing odd or different with any of the elements of the story, instead choosing to put its arms around the audience, bring them in for a lovely couple of hours and then deposit them lightly on the pavement outside the theatre with a nice warm feeling inside.

Runs until 12th October 2024