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Van makes a five star turn
Driving Miss Shepherd: Nichola McAuliffe gives a brilliant portrayal of the eccentric woman who lived in a van on Alan Bennett's drive for 15 years The Lady
in The Van Malvern
Festival Theatre *****
ALAN Bennett wrote this intriguingly original play to tell the
true story of The
Lady in the Van
who he first encountered living on his North London street. When the
council painted the double yellow lines around her van, he allowed
her to move on to his front drive. They she stayed for 15 years.
The sound of a van door shutting still takes him back to those times.
On stage Alan Bennett is
played by two actors. One plays the man himself interacting with the
batty, filthy, tramp-like Miss Shepherd, and the other is the narrator,
and speaks out loud Bennett's thoughts as he struggles between
wanting to help the woman and finding her truly exasperating in almost
every way. Sean McKenzie and Paul Kemp
give great performances and have Bennett's inimitable accent and camp
tone and a similar look. Nichola McAuliffe, winner of
multiple acting awards, is Miss Shepherd. She is the undoubted star of
the piece, and more awards are surely to come her way.
Shepherd was an
ambulance driver in the war, a talented pianist, an apprentice nun, and
now a totally eccentric elderly woman, who has ended up living in her
van in squalor, while making attempts to be elected to parliament and
trying the patience of all the neighbours, the council, and social
workers. McAuliffe is masterful at
physically inhabiting the tics, scratches, and busy intensity of this
mentally-troubled woman. She never bathes, and has no access to a ‘lav',
a truly malodourous woman. She has money in the bank, but
eats food from dustbins. Truly thrifty, in one scene she sucks a pear
drop for a few seconds wipes it on her dress, and puts it back in the
bag. Despite all this we warm to the dotty Miss Shepherd
completely. Running in parallel to the van
lady, we see Bennett's own mother, home in
Yorkshire, also struggling in old age with mental problems. We feel that Bennett's
civility for the squatter on his drive eases his guilty conscience at
putting his mother in a home. His good 1970's socialist guilt is also
assuaged by giving Miss Shepherd some measure of safety from the
judgmental neighbours and locals. His observation that “In life, going
downhill is a vast uphill battle” is so very true. The central focus of the set
is the dilapidated and yet magnificent van. A poignant moment indeed
when, upon the Van Lady's death, the condemned van ascends to heaven to
join its owner. This touring production by the
superb Hull Truck Theatre company is a must-see in every way -vintage
Alan Bennett! To 02-16-12 Clare Trow
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