Little Women – four sisters break away from the paths the world would prefer them to take (Lyric Theatre until 2 March)

It’s not often that I sit in the theatre and can forget everything else around me and be entranced by the storytelling on stage. It’s much more likely to happen in the cinema. Theatres are much more chatty places, particularly on press night, full of buzz and distraction, long before the curtain goes up.

The Lyric Theatre’s production of Little Women has an incredible intensity right from the off that held my attention with a vice-like grip. The four March sisters are gadding about the house and within minutes we’ve learned that Meg (Ruby Campbell) is the eldest, sensible, very conscious of her good looks (“her face will be her fortune”), a teacher and a wannabe homemaker. Jo (Marty Breen) is a writer at heart, a self-confessed tomboy with a beautiful sense of non-conformity,  and Meg’s wingman when they head out together. Beth (Maura Bird) is forever tinkling the ivories on the family piano, a shy homebird who is essentially honest and good, enjoying an incredible bond with big sister Jo. Amy (Tara Cush) is the youngest and least mature, delightfully mixing up big words, quite unfiltered when expressing opinions, not quite sure how of how to define herself but in the meantime very keen to be seen to please and quite jealous of her sisters.

This version of Little Women is very character driven. Based on the original books by Louisa May Alcott, Anne-Marie Casey’s witty – and sometimes a bit barmy – script creates generously proportioned scenes that allow time to explore the sisters and establish their quirks and motivations, rather than bouncing the audience through lots of quick scene changes in race to the plot’s end. While it adds to the run time – and the pre-show warnings are a little daunting* – it also adds to the enjoyment of the storytelling.

* Just don’t drink in the hour before the show starts and nip to the loo when you arrive and you’ll be fine! It’s no longer than Greta Gerwig’s film which didn’t have an interval.

Little Women is Emily Foran’s main stage debut as director. Her back catalogue of work on smaller productions has always impressed. Ploughing through the script and giving every scene the time it deserved must have been a Herculean task during rehearsals and tech. But the finished product has such a quality feel. Foran’s direction is delicate and detailed, and begs the question why she has only got this opportunity now. The second act scene featuring a family death will be hard to forget in years to come, with the emotion in the moment of loss handled with such sensitivity.

Tracey Lindsay’s two storey set serves the story well, and the layers of scenery which drop down in front to temporarily take the audience to parties and New York are very neat. The backdrop visually supports the change of seasons, along with some delicious dustings of snow and an icy adventure. Altogether, it makes for another great main stage debut. Stuart Robinson’s soundscape is at its strongest in the first act with some lovely flourishes like when it takes over from Beth’s piano playing, but the string pads between some scenes feel laboured rather than setting a clear mood for what’s coming next.

While the whole play revolves around the four sisters, their journeys are supported by five other characters. Allison Harding’s Aunt March is agreeably abrupt, a decisive and a disruptive influence each time she marches on stage. Marmee (Jo Donnelly) is the matriarch who is all stiff upper lip uttering truisms as she cares for her daughters on a meagre budget while her absent husband is off being chaplain for the Union Army in the Civil War. As the run progresses, there’s definitely room for Marmee to develop a few more rounded mannerisms to go alongside the straitjacket of duty that requires her to be deadly serious so much of the time.

Cillian Lenaghan allows next-door neighbour Laurie’s heart to be melted every time he’s in the presence of Jo. Shaun Blaney plays Laurie’s tutor and overcomes obstacles to cement his role as Meg’s love interest. After the interval, Friedrich finally introduces Jo to European culture, and Ash Rizi very quickly establishes his character’s respect for Jo as a peer, and his abject disappointment that she continues to write pulp fiction for money rather than pursuing her true talent. (Go and see American Fiction in the cinema for another take on the value of different types of writing.)

Meg and Amy embrace their femininity: after all, they have been brought up to believe that the game they’re playing means “men have to work, women have to marry for money”. But from the first moment Jo shoves her hands into the very practical pockets in her dress we get a sense of her nonconformity. At every point in the story, she wants to be fully human, not constrained by stereotypes. Without laying it on thick, this production does allow – perhaps encourage – a queer reading of the story, albeit one with a marriage that is maybe borne out of friendship and respect rather than romance. Breen delivers a mesmerising performance, a tender triumph that continues to fill out Jo’s sense of self all the way as the character grows up throughout the play.

This production of Little Women is a good story very well told. It might be set in the 1860s, but I was drawn into the sisters’ world through the quality of their accents, their interactions and the decisions they each make to break away from the paths the world would prefer them to take. It was an absorbing evening of exceptional theatre. 

Little Women continues its run at the Lyric Theatre until Saturday 2 March. Tickets are scarce – just a couple of single seats available for some performances – but well worth seeing.

Photo credit: Carrie Davenport

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