17 Feb 2025
Deborah Heath is at the Maltings Arts Theatre for Breakaway’s new production of the comedy drama.
St Albans theatregoers are being treated to the second play in the ‘Ladies’ trilogy by Amanda Whittington; the first, ‘Ladies Day’, being staged by Company of Ten last month, and Breakway themselves in 2022.
‘Ladies Down Under’ sees Pearl, Jan, Linda and Shelley a year on from their day at the races, spending their winnings on a trip of a lifetime to Australia to visit Jan’s boyfriend, Joe.
It’s a lovely idea to have this kind of character follow-up as sequels are rare in the theatre so I quite understand why Breakaway chose to stage the play.
I became very fond of Whittington’s four characters in ‘Ladies Day’ and was intrigued to see what would happen next in their lives. The bar was set high though, because ‘Ladies Day’ was the perfect blend of comedy and drama and not every sequel can reach the heights of ‘Back to the Future II’!
Having spent time in Australia myself, I must commend director Lesley Cowland for creating such an authentic atmosphere. I was once again transported to a dusty environment and freaked out by strange noises made by wild animals in the dark!
This achievement is especially noteworthy because Lesley chose to keep to minimal scenery, allowing the audience to engage their imaginations for a more personal experience. These scenes were really well executed by the cast throughout due to their on-point reactions – excellent direction and performance.
The actors were a great team of six. Clare Waller’s innocence as Linda was well judged, I particularly liked her amusing wide-eyed delivery of “Shelley’s asked for Sex… on the beach”. Zara Radford’s physicality as Shelley was perfect and as ever, her facial expressions were a joy to behold. It felt a little strange to see Margie Skinner playing Jan when she had done such a good job of Pearl in ‘Ladies Day’ but she gave a sensitive performance, especially in her touching love scene with Joe.
Pearl was played this time by Elaine Hartless who gave a strong realisation of the role capturing the highs and lows with perfect balance. I must commend Elaine and Margie too for starting the play off with such strength and teamwork.
The nine supporting roles were played by Malcolm Coakley and Paul Murphy who demonstrated good versatility. These are difficult parts because most of them, e.g. the air stewards, are caricatures. I don’t consider this a problem as the focus is rightfully on the women throughout.
However, the roles of Joe and Danny were weightier and both actors fully embraced them; well done! I must add that Paul’s Australian accept was superb and perfectly sustained. I would also like to commend the stage crew who were one man down and worked extremely efficiently throughout.
Amanda Whittington’s script itself began well, embracing observational and character-based comedy with ease. However, the second half seemed to lose its
focus and structure somewhat. Although the rest of the audience roared with laughter during the Mardi Gras scene, I found the writing to be a little ill-judged.
This is no reflection whatsoever on the company who performed with energy and dedication throughout.
It would be very interesting to see ‘Ladies Unleashed’, the final play in the trilogy in which Linda takes her friends on a “non-hen night” to Holy Island. I wonder if we can expect that from any St Albans companies next year.
‘Ladies Down Under’ is a fun piece of escapism. It is a good choice not only for those who have seen ‘Ladies Day’ but anyone who has ever been on holiday with friends or who needs a bit of a lift.
Let’s face it, with the dreary weather we have all had to put up with recently, what could be better than popping to Australia for a night? Tickets are available from https://ovo.org.uk/shows/ladies-down-under/
Photos by Ilka Antippa
