This production from Really Truly Theatre Company of Polly Lamb’s play is set, as its title might tell you, in the height of the Covid lockdown at the start of the pandemic.
Seems a long time ago, now, doesn’t it – though it’s barely three years. And it’s lockdown itself, rather than Covid, which is the focus of the piece – and its effect on six women of varied ages and backgrounds.
Effectively it is six monologues, one after another – which may seem like an unpromising format. But not here.
What makes it work so well is the sheer skill of the writing and of the separate performances, held together by occasional bursts of a varied and evocative musical score.
It would take too long here to describe the power of each individual portrayal, but they all vividly, wittily, poignantly, angrily, tearfully, bring to the audience a fascinating glimpse of each of their worlds, and each of their problems and occasional joys.
We have addiction, we have mother love, we have poverty and a failed welfare system, we just have endless, and never less than riveting insights into the effects of a real situation that we all remember on six ordinary women, brought to extraordinary life by six gifted actors. Magic.
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Reviewer: John Christopher Wood | Star rating: ****