Allegra
Peter Quilter
Directed by Stephen Mear
Richmond Theatre and touring
Star rating: 3
This show is entertaining twaddle. In places it’s very funny and Maureen Lipman is a stage commander like no other. But there’s no substance or depth in it.
The titular Allegra is a lithe, irrepressible, ever-cheerful elderly eccentric. She gets up at 3pm, doesn’t buy food and sings songs and dances wherever she goes to such an extent that noise nuisance and restraining orders are in the air. Although it’s never mentioned or discussed she probably has some rare form of dementia. Her long-suffering brother Ronen (John Middleton) certainly thinks so which is why he installs a carer (Elizabeth Bower). Police Officer Rogers (Bailey Patrick) has to call increasingly often. And that’s it as far as narrative goes – none of it is developed although there’s plenty of laugh-aloud situation comedy.
Lipman’s is an extraordinary performance. Her rapier sharp timing throws the best lines in the play back at whoever she’s talking to and she’s hilarious with her knowing logic and shiny curly hair. Even her feet mange to be funny. She’s also full of dramatic energy despite quipping at curtain call that “eighty is the new forty”. Born in 1946, she is touring for the first time in 30 years and will do eight shows a week for some months. She does a lot of singing in this show because that’s Allegra’s “thing” and occasionally the lighting changes and she goes into a sort of trance in which she does a full dance and song routine sometimes with the rest of the cast in, for example, the umbrella-twirling Singing in the Rain – all choreographed by director, Stephen Mear. It’s as if there’s a musical in this show which is trying to get out but it doesn’t sit very coherently.
Because Lipman is the calibre of performer that she is, the other three cast members rise to her quality and in their different ways are all excellent: Middleton, always the serious voice of exasperated common sense, Bower the Czech, twinkling carer cooking delicious meals and and Patrick as the policeman trying to be firm but getting drawn in to the silliness in spite of himself.
It’s odd to see a show which manages to be both weak on many counts but also quite watchable. I suspect it will prove a hit with uncritical audiences who will simply enjoy the humour.
