Director: Roy Marsden
Starring: Jenny Seagrove, Sara Crowe, Tim Wallers, Robin Sebastian, Gillian McCafferty, Philip Battley
Synopsis: Are these young ladies truly fallen angels or just thoroughly modern? as they spend and evening reminiscing over past adventures.
Fallen Angels was written by Noel Coward and is a tale of two married ladies whose lover from their single days threatens to visit.
Jenny Seagrove and Sara Crowe are excellent in this play of slapstick humor as the two ladies whose old infidelities threaten their comfortable lives. Seagrove portrays Julia brilliantly as a woman who has settled into the routine of a dull marriage with acceptance but who remembers the old days with fondness. Jane (excellently played by Crowe) seems happy in her marriage but is terrified that her time of sowing her wild oats will come back to haunt her.
The husbands (Tim Wallers and Robin Sebastian) are completely grey in personality and appearance, head off for a weekend of golf leaving their wives to spend time together. Julia’s maid, Saunders. is expertly performed by Gillian McCarthy. Saunders has the privilege of knowing everything because she has experienced it, and this surprises Julia and her husband initially, however Saunders endless knowledge about golf and hangover cures to name a few slowly begins to irritate them. Saunders expertise as ‘a know all‘ is brilliantly played as even the audience started to find it irritating.
Jane bursts into Julia’s flat concerned that her dalliance with Frenchman Maurice (suavely depicted by Philip Battley) will be revealed should he come to London. This sets the scene for the rest of the show as the ladies spend the day and evening enthralled and terrified that Maurice will appear at the flat ruining them. Jane and Julia spend an evening reminiscing and deliberating their options having dinner and champagne. This is the start of the slippery slope as Julia and Jane become tipsy and then drunk. The antics they get up to are hilariously portrayed with many laugh out loud moments as their debauched evening progresses.
The costumes and set decoration meant that the era that this performance was set in is difficult to identify. However, when the play was first seen in 1925, it was reviewed as being outrageous, shocking, obscene, degenerate and vulgar. Topics of drunkenness and sex before marriage are not so taboo these days but the play is still relevant and uproariously performed. An excellent lighthearted evening’s entertainment.
[usr=4] Fallen Angels is running at the New Victoria Theatre in Woking until 29th March, 2014.
