Women On The Verge Of HRT

8 Apr 2009 in Dance & Drama, Highland

Empire Theatre, Eden Court, Inverness, until 11 April 2009

L to R: Louise Jameson and Janet Dibley in Women on the Verge of HRT

MARIE JONES’S Women on the Verge of HRT is the story of two middle-aged friends and their escapades after the “dreamy” Daniel O’Donnell’s concert. Vera, played by Louise Jameson, is bold, opinionated and extremely bitter due to her ex-husband’s new (and much younger) wife and baby son. Her close friend Anna, played by Janet Dibley, is quite the opposite, happy to stay in a loveless marriage and lust over the picture of Daniel O’Donnell printed on her pillow case.

The show opens slowly, as Anna sets the scene while she prepares for bed, humming a love song to Daniel. The energy picks up markedly when Vera enters and breaks her quiet moment. This contrast in their characters allows for some humorous moments throughout the play, particularly the conversation about owning a cat…

On the whole, however, the performance is rushed, with the actors throwing away many punch lines with dialogue that is too fast to pick up on. And those jokes that are delivered well are generally predictable lines playing on the subjects of menopause and the battle of the sexes.

The set and lighting design is fairly straight forward. In the first act the women (and their naive, impressionable waiter) are situated in their hotel room and in the second they are in the “nature” of Donegal, waiting for the sunrise. In both cases, the set and lighting are simple and served their purpose.

As a piece of theatre, it is a disappointing work. The script could delve much further into the universality and timelessness of negative self image: the 45-year old pre-menopausal woman who despises her body probably despised it when she was 25. Unfortunately Jones has played it safe, and delivered a fairly straight forward, sentimental story.

Having said that, who am I to judge? I am at least 20 years younger than the target audience, and many of the pop-culture references fly straight over my head. I can’t say I exactly enjoyed myself, but the 700 or so women on the verge of HRT sitting in the auditorium most definitely did. If you’re looking for entertainment, and a very giggly girls’ night out, this is definitely your cup of tea.

© Polly Hamilton, 2009

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