Review by: Paul Towers, 21 April 2017
Cloaks by Alison Dunne
An Ivoryfishbone production – directed by Alison Dunne
and performed by Lesley Emery and Charlotte Bond
Upstairs @ The Western, 21/4/17
“sparkling dialogue”
Kath works in the cloakroom at the local theatre hanging up
the coats of the theatre goers. This leaves her plenty of time between
performances to reminisce about her life while putting up with her friend Kim’s
awful jokes and incessantly cheery chatter.
As frustrated matriarch Kath, Lesley Emery leads the
performance while Charlotte Bond snaffles coats from the rack to become a range
of characters from Kath’s erstwhile husband, Bryn, to her Mum, Dad and sister.
The sparkling dialogue reminds me of a laid back Victoria
Wood and Dunne is just as capable of veering from laugh out loud to tearful
poignancy as we experience Kath’s disappointment at failing to conceive and her
subsequent divorce.
My only gripe is that there was no programme or even fact
sheet to detail some background about the author, cast and crew. I know that
these productions at Upstairs at The Western are done on a shoestring but the
participants deserve recognition.
This sold out performance will be repeated at Newbold Verdon
library on April 22nd
Details of future shows can be found on https://ivoryfishbone.wordpress.com/
First published on Western Gazette and Pub Theatre blog
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