An uncomfortable drama: Georgia, young, ex-model, ex-high flyer, ex-big money maker loses the use of her legs in an unspecified accident.
The play concerns the effect of this on her and the friends who share her expansive house with her.
There is none of the cliché’d stoic paraplegic refusing to be brought down by her affliction here. No paralympic ambitions for her; two years on she is still the diva, self-obsessed, self-pitying, and taking out her bitterness on everyone around her, friends, fiancé, paid carers, even the plumber.
None of the characters come out of this very well, as the household is ripped apart by jealousy, sexual insecurity, and bafflement at the situation they are in.
Unfortunately, the script doesn’t quite bring all of this to believable life:some of the situations are unlikely, some of the characters thinly drawn, some of the dialogue a bit clunky; and it is really impossible to see why so many of them say so often how much they love Georgia, when she displays no loveable characteristics at all.
Nevertheless, the able cast give it their best shot, Georgia in particular, and get what there is to be got out of the script in the end.
There are moments of tenderness, and of poignancy, and they get laughs at the humour in the piece, though some other laughs at the unlikeliness of some of it.
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Reviewer: John Christopher Wood | Rating: *** Three Stars