When: Wednesday 26th March
Where: Hampstead Theatre
Why: Imelda Staunton
This play really made me fancy a game of bingo. Seriously, I think I probably still have an old dabber pen from when I used to go with my grandma and the old ladies – I was tempted to hunt it out. Set in Boston, I didn’t think bingo was a thing in the states, but apparently so.
This new play by David Lindsay-Abaire (who also wrote the book for Shrek the Musical…) is tough and punchy, and offers an insight into class issues in modern day America. The incomparable Imelda Staunton as Margie is a chippy, dollar-store worker (until she’s fired in the first scene) with a disabled daughter and an unsecure lifestyle. As her life looks like it might be starting to unravel, she hears an old boyfriend (played imperiously by Lloyd Owen) is in town and seeks him out, ostensibly to help her find work. As she tries to crash his cancelled party, she realises the gulf that has appeared between the boy who made good and her own life (“How’s the wine?” – “How the fuck would I know?”), and a series of witty and gritty observations plays out. Some dark truths emerge and we see how we change even our own histories and memories, and everyone’s motives are questioned.
Imelda as ever was touching, nuanced and hilarious, bringing vulnerability to a complex character (and a damn good Boston accent, as far as I know…) Margie’s old dollar store manager played by Matthew Barker was also innocently funny as the unexpected hero of the piece, who is constantly teased and who everyone thinks is gay because he’s always at the bingo with them. This was a great example of a situation play that was done at such a high standard – it made me think of the sort of thing that a lot of the amateur theatre I’ve seen would totally destroy and drag into banality, and it could be easily done, but this was utterly at the top end of the scale.
Brixpig x
