And even more shades of blue

51 Shades of Maggie

Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton

***

THE weather has been filthy, and here’s a one-woman play that just about matches it, and some people may well think it’s even worse.

Promoted as  the perfect girly night out with your friends, the spoof slant on the best selling novel 50 Shades of Grey began as a Facebook experiment by Belfast’s Leesa Harker just over a year ago and quickly developed a big following.

Now it is a two-hour play littered with four letter words and explicit descriptions of sexual acts that will shock even the most broad-minded. Ironically the author, a Belfast mother of two, studied English language and literature at the Open University!

The vast majority of the opening night audience at the Grand were women, and while some appeared rather embarrassed by the script there were many howls of laughter as chubby actress Dannielle Malone played sex-loving working class Londoner Maggie Muff with gusto.

She cartwheels, dances around the stage and goes into all kinds of contortions on a giant circular bed which was the only prop. An amazing performance, for sure.

Malone also has to switch to the voices of her dim friend, Sally Anne, and the man of her dreams – posh-sounding Mr Big who interviews her at a back-to-work meeting in the local dole office but turns out to be a sado-masochistic fanatic.

When the theatre announcer urges people to turn off their mobile phones….or switch them to vibrate, it’s a hint of things to come. To 19-02-14

Paul Marston 

 

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