England Expects

A second sold out night at Upstairs at The Western saw the premiere of 'England expects ...', the experiences of music hall star Vesta Tilley during the Great War. Written by Tom Glover, directed by Gary Phillpott and performed by Becca Cooper, this is part of Off The Fence Theatre Company's World War One centenary remembrance (I wanted to say celebration but no war is anything to celebrate). This completes the double bill of pieces, along with Clamber Up The Crucifix, that kicks off Off The Fence's 2014 season.
Vesta Tilley was the very antithesis of Marie Lloyd, her contemporary on the music hall circuit at the beginning of the 20th century. Where Marie was course and very working class, Vesta was sophisticated and middle class.
Vesta Tilley, born Matilda Alice Powles in Worcester in 1864, was child performer and adopted her preferred guise of man-drag at the age of 6. It was probably a foregone conclusion that she would be a performer as her father, veteran comedy actor, songwriter and music hall chairman Harry Ball, steered her professional life right from the off. He only relinquished his control when she married husband Walter de Freece at the age of 26.
It was Walters' aspiration to be an MP that steered Vesta into the patriotic recruitment period of her professional life and thence to her disillusioned retirement. Being a good Victorian wife Vesta did what her husband asked, even when she knew him to be wrong. It was Tilley's realisation that the young men she was recruiting off the back of her shows were going to their certain death or injury that precipitated her withdrawal from performing in 1920, just after her husband, ennobled for his war effort, finally became the MP he aspired to be.
All this is expertly portrayed by Becca Cooper alone on stage with an assortment of costumes. This one woman show is poignantly interspersed with an array of Tilley's own songs, betraying the influence for Oh What A Lovely War in 1963.
England Expects dispenses humour and pathos in equal measures and, again, highlights the appalling, unnecessary loss of life in the Great War. You can catch further performances at Upstairs at The Western on 6 March 2014 and at Curve on 19th April as part of the Inside Out Festival

© Paul Towers 4/3/2014