LADIES IN LAVENDER
LADIES IN LAVENDER, Ensemble Theatre, 8 July-15 August 2015. Photography by Clare Hawley, above: Gael Ballantyne, Sharon Flanagan, Penny Cook and Daniel Mitchell; right: Lisa Gormley.
Ladies in Lavender is charming and consistently wryly and acidly funny as well as touching. And that’s little short of miraculous given its origins: “adapted for the stage by Shaun McKenna from a screenplay by Charles Dance based on a short story by William Locke”. By all the laws of the universe it should have turned into a dog’s breakfast, but is has not.
That it is so successful at the Ensemble is also down to the very fine principal cast of Penny Cook and Sharon Flanagan as the lady sisters Janet and Ursula, and Gael Ballantyne as their hilariously dowdy and formidable cook-housekeeper Dorcas.
Set in Cornwall shortly before the outbreak of WW2, Janet and Ursula live a genteel, thrill-free existence in a seaside cottage where time stopped at the end of the previous war. Like so many spinsters of that era, Janet lost her young man to the trenches while the younger Ursula never had one. These days their lives revolve around decorous routine, Dorcas’s robust cooking (Cornish pasties and toad in a hole) and a nightly cup of cocoa after listening to a nice concert on the BBC.
All this changes one sunny morning after a violent storm when a young man is washed up on the beach, more dead than alive. He is Andreas, a Polish violinist en route to a new life in America and somehow washed overboard with a sprained ankle. As the hopeful musician, Benjamin Hoetjes can actually play the instrument and also has the look of a soulfully innocent Romantic. It is entirely plausible therefore, that equally romantic and innocent Ursula should take him to heart, nevertheless, because of the writing and intelligent performances the resulting friendship is neither creepy nor pathetic.
They are ably supported by Daniel Mitchell as the local doctor and widower. Dr Mead – a very amateur violinist – lends his violin to the patient and all is cosy until Lisa Gormley as gorgeous visiting Russian painter Olga sets up her easel on the nearby cliffs. Not only does she catch the lonely doctor’s eye, but – good heavens, surely not – it turns out that her brother is a world famous violin virtuoso who could help Andreas to a brilliant career.
If this wild unlikelihood plus the possibility of Polish flotsam and Russian floozy simultaneously fetching up in a tiny Cornish village bothers you, then Ladies in Lavender may not be the most beguiling night for you. Yet it is beguiling and beautifully performed.
Director Nicole Buffoni choreographs the cast up and down and around Anna Gardiner’s cottage/garden setting and wisely doesn’t get in the way of the three women whose talent and experience as comedic actors are a delight to watch. There is poignancy and heart in Ladies in Lavender and much subtly well observed characterisation as well as the laugh-out-loud moments and many gentle chuckles.
It would be wonderful to see more of the under-used Cook, Ballantyne and Flanagan on Sydney’s stages: they’re not only spectacularly funny but also uncommonly able dramatic actresses too. All in all it’s enchanting old fashioned play-making. Recommended.
