Review by Paul Towers, 2/10/23
Stags & Hens (The Remix) by Willy Russell
Directed by Simon Dickens
Produced by Leicester Drama Society
At The Little Theatre til Saturday 7th October 2023
“working class Liverpool at its funniest”
Set in 1970’s working class Liverpool Stags & Hens explores the different sensibilities of men and women on a night out.
It is Linda (Holly Matuisiewicz) and Dave’s (Simon Butler) night before their wedding. Both inadvertently turn up at the same run down nightclub.
As their night progresses and their alcohol consumption increases the different ways the two groups deal with things emerges. In the boy’s toilets testosterone levels rise as Eddy (Lewis Cole) tries to butch up the group. While Robbie (Joey Perez-Jones) is just bemoaning the fact that Dave has thrown up an earlier consumed curry all over his best pulling trousers. Kav (Matt Zebrowski) is the group lush and is more interested in his art that the rough and tumble of the night. Finally there is Billy (Russell Webster), the odd ball pushed around by the rest of the group.
Meanwhile, over at the graffiti strewn ladies’ toilets the girls are gathering themselves to enter the fray of the dancefloor. Bride to be Linda is locked in a cubicle trying to decide whether she really wants to be married while her friends are jostling for the sole mirror as they put the finishing touches to their war paint.
Maureen (Olivia Phillips) is constantly slurping from the secreted half bottle of cheap vodka in her handbag. She is a maudlin drunk and spends most of the night in tears hoping for a ‘nice time’. Bernadette (Angelica Robinson) is the group leader and imposes her will on everyone while Frances (Amy Hollis) the perpetual best friend tries to smooth everything over. Finally Carol (Carla Field) a work colleague and not really part of the close knit circle watches much of the action in wonder.
While Linda is wavering in the cubicle trouble in the form of her ex Peter (Nick Wilkins) appears as the lead singer of a group appearing in the club later that night. The lads in the Gents are jealous that Peter managed to escape their poverty stricken lifestyle while the girls are worried he will drag Linda away from her impending marriage.
As usual with a Willy Russell play there are hilarious one liners and insightful thoughts of working class Liverpool all couched in the earthy language of the area.
Stags & Hens is not for the easily offended and runs til Saturday 7th October.
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