MURIEL Spark’s famous novel The Girls Of Slender Means commends itself to theatre writers in many ways. The book tells the story of a diverse group of young women, thrown together in a London hostel in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War.
It is a novel about war trauma, but also solidarity, competition and differences – not least of social class – between its five female protagonists. The literary interests and ambitions among the characters – like their passions for fashion, music and nightlife – reflect their desire to escape from – and, indeed, rise above – the grim realities of a bomb-blasted London.
Add to this the catalyst of Nicholas Farringdon, an erudite and rebellious poet who carries his anarchist politics with the self-assurance of his bourgeois background, and you have a prose fiction that overflows with dramatic possibilities.
This adaptation for the Royal Lyceum Theatre Company – which is written by actor-turned-playwright Gabriel Quigley and directed by Roxana Silbert – identifies the novel’s theatrical potential and exploits it with insight, emotion and not a little amount of wit.
The play looks back in time from the offices of Jane Wright (the excellent Molly Vevers), who has graduated from her nascent career in publishing in 1945 to being editor of London fashion magazine Elan in 1963. There it is that Wright is informed that Farringdon – who abandoned his earlier revolutionary politics to become a Jesuit missionary – has been killed in Haiti.
Wright’s memories of Farringdon and her group of female friends whisk us back to the summer of 1945. There, the young women – from poetry teacher Jo (who is played with tremendous pathos by Molly McGrath) to Selina (Julia Brown, on impressively glamorous and steely form) – are given universally superb performances.
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Seamus Dillane plays Farringdon with a seductive charm and intelligence that is polluted by a dash of Renaissance rakishness.
Designer Jessica Worrall has her work cut out for her as the action switches not only back-and-forward in time, but also between numerous locations. These include the offices of Elan, the spartan hostel accommodation and the women’s favourite haunt, Smokey’s Club (where Worrall wittily represents male dance partners by way of mannequins on wheels).
In visual terms, the design is unerring and memorable in its contrasts.
Worrall’s creations are constantly engaging, whether it is the iconic blue dress that illuminates the young women’s lives or the monochrome image of destroyed buildings that serves as a backdrop to the action in 1945.
However, as is sometimes the case with adaptations of novels to the stage, the frequency and complexity of the shifts in time and place make for somewhat clunky set changes, despite the always proficient efforts of both stagehands and cast members.
However, if this technical difficulty has an adverse impact on the rhythm of the piece, the production plays an otherwise strong hand.
From its sharp, clever script, through its stylish design to its top-class acting, it is an adaptation that does Spark’s novel proud.
Until May 4 at lyceum.org.uk.
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