Amira Matthews in Extraordinary Women. Photo by Steve Gregson.Written around the time that Virginia Woolf published Orlando, Mackenzie’s somewhat dated vehicle pursues the life and loves of an irrepressible but skittish Bohemian named Rosalba Donsante (Amy Ellen Richardson), her more staid English lover Aurora ‘Rory’ Freemantle (Caroline Sheen) and other women with whom they are tentatively connected. For the purposes of the musical, three sirens Leucosia, Ligeia, and Parthenope are joined by Ancient Greek poetess Sappho to act as a sort of chorus, setting up the convoluted first half and then evaluating the chaotic messiness which ensued at the top of act two. Played by Sophie Louise Dann, Jasmine Kerr, Monique Young, and Amira Matthews respectively, the four appear at their island setting in the guise of various lovers, haughty chaperones, naive juveniles, opera singers, and sundry waifs and strays, to the point that any sense of plot and narrative thread becomes charmingly overwrought, befuddled and obfuscated.
For all the silliness and melodrama in the resultant narrative, it has to be said that the cast manages to pull off something of an unexpected coup through well-restrained camp and knowingness in the delivery of Travis’ period songs, ably supported by the piano and strings of onstage accompanists Sam Sommerfeld and James William-Pattison.
Lastly, whilst the women rightly and understandably are assigned the overwhelming majority of stage time, songs and dialogue, they are ably supplemented by the chameleon-like Jack Butterworth who is called upon to play a dizzying array of seemingly random supporting characters, from the fey Daffodil to the military Captain Wheeler. Becoming the show’s running gag, he appears, disappears and reappears, wearing various hair styles, facial props and indicative costumes, the latter courtesy of Carla Joy Evans, who together with set designer Alex Marker, have worked a small miracle with a limited budget. The tongue in cheek ridiculousness of Butterworth’s appearances, together with the notably comedic flourishes from Sophie Louise Dann as spinsterish Miss Chimbley and her alter ego Cleo, who indulges in frequent use of ornamental French-phrasing, elevate what could have been a mess of squabbling and tiresome stand-offs to something altogether more appealing. If the writing team could only trim 30 minutes from the running time, and tighten the woolly dialogue, there’s potential for a witty and more commercial period show. Let the cutting commence!
EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN runs at Jermyn Street Theatre until 10th August.
