Paul Robinson's superb production of Calendar Girls: The Musical at the Stephen Joseph theatre in Scarborough is a heartfelt and hilarious celebration of ordinariness and community. The show, by Tim Firth and Gary Barlow, takes place in a landscape of Morrisons supermarkets, hospital waiting rooms, and traffic jams, where the year is marked by carol concerts and cake competitions. In the fictional Yorkshire Dales village of Knapely, even Cheshire seems snooty and crazy paving seems outré.
Community and Collective Action
The musical's great quality is its understanding of community. It makes fun of the jam-and-knitting conservatism of the Women's Institute, but deep down it is wiser than that. The middle-aged women who gather to hear talks like Brenda Hulse's lecture on broccoli are more like naughty schoolgirls than small-town reactionaries, and they have a radical instinct for collective action.
Seeing the production performed in the round is a special thrill. When it tours to Keswick's Theatre by the Lake and Bolton Octagon (but not Ipswich, where the New Wolsey stage demands a more conventional audience relationship), the staging, sparingly designed by Helen Coyston, creates a shared experience with no us and them. When these women suffer grief, neglect, and failure, the audience is right there with them. When they achieve the impossible, we are part of their joy.
Nudity Handled with Wit and Applause
The logistical challenge of stripping naked with the audience on all sides is handled wittily and effortlessly, to rapturous, body-positive applause. The actor-musicians in the sparkling Barlow and Firth version add extra levels of vulnerability and humanity, though no scene is so sentimental that it cannot be offset by a cracking joke.
In an ensemble as gorgeous as this, singling out Karen Holmes and Christina Meehan as Chris and Annie seems invidious. Their sisterly performances epitomise the production's emotional openness, its understanding of the messiness of intimate relationships, and its belief in the power of solidarity. They are first among equals in a deeply affecting show.
Calendar Girls: The Musical runs at the Stephen Joseph theatre, Scarborough, until 25 July, and on tour until 31 October.
