Review: Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour at The Duke of York’s Theatre, London

Saturday 13th May, 2017 at The Duke of York’s Theatre, London.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour, Lee Hall’s adaptation of Alan Warner’s novel The Sopranos, is a raging success – and that success lands almost entirely at the feet of the fantastic cast. Yes, the writing is good, and it tickles the ribs with various outrageous lexical combinations and obscenities, but the nature of the humour isn’t new. We’ve had adolescent obscenity and grossness entertaining us for years through The History Boys, Kevin and Perry, Some Girls and The Inbetweeners to name a few. The 16+ age advisory should be an indicator of the kind of content you can expect – these are girls of the modern age, who chat about teen pregnancy as a nonchalant yearly tally while they discuss who did what with whom.

What sets this show apart from other displays of angst-ridden teens is that these girls attend a strict nun-run Catholic School for girls. The regular reminders of this beautifully heightens the hilarity of the outrageous shenanigans, but also gives the show a winning extra layer: gorgeous choral music which transports us to the serenity of a church service before obliterating that angelic perfection with energetic, defiant, riotous rock tunes.The premise is simple: six choir girls from Oban are in Edinburgh, unsupervised for the day. There’s drink, drugs, sex, rude awakenings and poignant confessions amidst plenty of laughs. Under the direction of Vicky Featherstone, this cast perform a vast array of roles, shifting from school girl to pervy guy in the loos or greasy chancer in a bar. There is no token costume to assist with role changes and props are few and far between and to be fair, this cast don’t need token visuals.

And comic timing is a pool in which these performers have swum marathons it seems; quick exchanges, well landed punchlines and fantastic physical comedy all make this production a real joy to watch. Caroline Deyga, playing Chell, gains many a laugh simply through cracking facial expressions. Karen Fishwick plays the dark horse Kay with layers a-plenty, but Fishwick also impresses with her considerable talents with multi-roling as various funny-voiced minor characters.

Kirsty MacLaren plays Manda with a scrappy energy while also portraying her to be one of the more innocent of the group. Isis Hainsworth plays perhaps the most sentimental character in the production, Orla, who tells tales with winning naïvity. Frances Mayli McCann oozes self righteous confidence as the gutsy Kylah who has dreams she is determined to realise and has no problem making use of her winning female ways to get where she wants to be.Dawn Sievewright gave by far the strongest performance for me. Playing Fionnula, perhaps the most potty mouthed and the most outrageous of the girls, she was both hilarious with her spot-on over-exaggerated depictions of leering males. Sievewright has real stage presence and her brilliant solo was a highlight.

In the midst of self-discovery and growing up, the girls are insecure, confident, loyal, poignant and bitchy; they’re defiant, reckless, fearful and subservient in the presence of nuns; they’re loud and raucous and drunk and funny – they represent each and every whirling contradiction at play in the uncertain days of adolescence.While this show is recognisably a comedy, it also has aspects of a musical, yet it isn’t a musical. Kirsty MacLaren in particular must have a graduation certificate from a choir of angels somewhere – the sweet, high purity of her voice is the keystone of the choral numbers and the harmonies are just beautiful. Karen Fishwick’s voice stands out for its force and its rock-growl while Dawn Sievewright’s voice boasts that rare huskiness which handles both ballads and belters with identical ease. So, Our Ladies is a fog-horned success. It’s not exactly new in subject matter, but it is a very strong example of the very modern outrageous, profanity-laden coming of age story. There’s also much to be said for having an all female cast lead a play like this – having had male casts perform smutty scenes in the name of comedy for an age and then some, it’s nice to see a little levelling of that field.

Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour is at The Duke of York’s Theatre in London for a strictly limited run, and you can get your tickets here.