LADIES IN LAVENDER featuring the very popular Penny Cook is a sweet, charming and humorous play that has a subtly dark undercurrent of racism, snobbery, delusion and sibling rivalry which adds a layer of complexity and richness to the performance without being overwhelming.
Two old ladies are listening to Thomas Beecham conducting a Rimsky-Korsakov concert on the radio while they wind a skein of wool into balls. They have a confused conversation about Hussars and Cossacks.
One of the ladies goes to the kitchen to make their nightly cup of cocoa while the other listens to the shipping forecast and hears news of an approaching storm, the storm that washes a young man Andrea up onto their local beach. Andrea’s injured ankle results in Janet and Ursula nursing him while his injury heals. As Andrea, Benjamin Hoetjes gives an interesting, excellent and skillful performance.
The play is set in the period between the two World Wars with the characters having been traumatised in various ways and fearful of further military conflict.
Andrea turns about to be Polish which means that although the sisters Janet (Penny Cook) and Ursula (Sharon Flanagan) are infatuated by him, especially in Ursula’s case, they also regard him with some suspicion. The local doctor (Daniel Mitchell) has a strong dislike of Germans and Kaiser Bill. Andrea is tainted by his foreignness as he may be perceived as having connections with Germans.
There is another foreigner staying nearby. Olga is a painter who is also very impressed by Andrea and his talents. Olga is disliked by some of the older characters but this can be viewed as resulting from attitudes of the times but it could just as likely be about parochialism, racism and jealousy. Lisa Gormley plays Olga and gives a captivating performance.
Although there are dark and unpleasant themes present the story’s main focus is on the sisters nurturing Andrea back to health and the joy the trio bring to each other.
The housekeeper, Dorcas, adds humour that is almost raucous in comparison to the refined and naïve attributes of Janet and Ursula. Gael Ballantyne as Dorcas gives a polished performance conveying the humour and pragmatism of a member of the working class.
Many people would be familiar with the 2004 film directed by Charles Dance. The music in the live production is a truly wonderful component of this Nicole Buffoni directed Ensemble Theatre production.
LADIES IN LAVENDER is only playing a brief season at the Joan Sutherland theatre. The show’s final performance is tonight at 8pm.