Jumpy

When: Monday 27th August

Where: Duke of York’s Theatre

Why: TAMSIN GREIG

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – day tickets are the BEST. Granted we got to the Duke of York’s at 9am and the box office didn’t open until noon (cheers for that, bank holiday), but after a sunny morning stroll around Cov G we wandered back and queued for a bit and got front row seats for a tenner. The only thing I will say is that day tickets apply to the front two rows, which are orchestra pit rows, and I would probably go for the second row in future. You’re basically IN the stage, by which I mean my nose was in touching distance of the edge. At one point, Tamsin Greig’s character is curled up weeping at the front of the stage, and I could have genuinely reached out to give her a comforting pat. Which was actually quite cool. But a bit hard on the neck. You can see the whole stage though, just sort of from the feet up. Better to be too close than at the back though (cf. my row X experience at Wicked).

Jumpy is a new play by April de Angelis and is centred around the relationship between a mother who has just turned 50, and a rebellious teenage daughter. In some ways, it’s a fairly standard storyline, not especially original, but it is written very engagingly and will resonate with essentially anyone who has a woman in their family (so... all humans then).

The plot manages to pack stuff in and there’s some pretty dramatic stuff in there, including teenage pregnancies, running away, affairs, marital issues, gunshots and cradle-snatching. Very much the drama of everyday life. Tamsin Greig is brilliantly suited for this role, and it’s made for her particular strengths of portraying gritty emotion and combining strength and vulnerability in a very relatable character. She’s just such a classy actress and you know you’re always guaranteed a quality performance when you see her. The chemistry with her on-stage daughter (expertly and spiritedly played by Bel Powley) was also sparky and believable. The daughter’s teenage friend was also really excellently played by Seline Hizli who gave a very touching and funny performance of a daffy but loving teenage mother.

Another big plus for this producation was Doon Mackichan (yes! Off of Smack the Pony and Celebrity Fame Academy!) She plays the best friend and is a right old hoot. She has a belly-laugh-inducing striptease routine which had me in stitches throughout and for about 10 minutes after it was over. Needless to say her character is treating the old 5-0 with an altogether different approach to her married friend, and her attempts to win round the chaps are hilarious.

The thing I noticed about this play was that every single actor was really excellent and it was such a standout group performance, which I have hardly ever seen in a play and certainly none since I’ve been in London. It was such a relief to be able to relax into the play and just let everyone’s marvellousness wash over me. That was what made the play such a great experience I think, having the confidence just to get right into it and not be conscious of some rubbish person in the background the whole time.

I massively recommend and at £10 for day seats I will definitely be back before the run ends on 3^rd November.

Brixpig x