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Lloyd brews up a tea of distinction Tea at
Five Old Joint
Stock Theatre ****
MEG Lloyd delivers a remarkable performance as
Katharine Hepburn in the biographical Tea at Five, a one-woman play
based on Hepburn's memoir Me: Stories
of My Life, in the wonderfully intimate
space of the Old Joint Stock Theatre. Director Christopher
Wrayford's confidence in resurrecting this piece is inspired. The
show has never before been performed in the UK and ten years on from the
first production of the play in the US, the show opened at the
Stratford-upon-Avon Fringe Festival (UK) in June of this year where
Lloyd won awards for Best Solo Production and Best Female Actor and
Wraysford was nominated for Best Director In reality Lloyd is a
diminutive beauty but her stage presence is such that you believe her to
be the distinctive, 6' 1” Hepburn. Her characterisation of the
acerbic, spirited, witty, and sometimes tragic Hepburn is, amusing and
moving. For 100 minutes, Lloyd delivers captivating, flawless,
word perfect performance in a setting to which, whilst minimal, much
attention had been paid to detail.
Perhaps, for some, Lloyd
doesn't quite capture to distinctive raspiness or maturity of Hepburn's
voice but for those who don't know Hepburn … and some of the audience
certainly wouldn't be old enough to ... ‘so what?'; this is not an
impersonation but a talented and skilled portrayal of a screen star who
had varying levels of success, ‘hit, flop, hit flop, flop, flop,
flop', spurned publicity but always captured the imagination of
public and gossip columnists.
In Act 1, we join the 31-year
old Hepburn at the family home in Fenwick where she a tells of her
fascinating family background and reminiscences as she waits to see if
she has been given the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With The Wind.
In Act 2 the 76-year old wears a symbolic red sweater as a reminder of
her beloved Spence (Spencer Tracy), again looking back on her career,
life, love, aging and fighting to accept Parkinson's disease. The
ritual ‘Tea at Five' has been substituted for scotch. ‘It's
for the pain' she tells us.
The OJS production and
technical team Tim and Alex offered enthusiastic support and the show
closed to a lengthy and enthusiastic applause. Tea at Five is one of those
pieces of performing art where I would like to grab people from the
street, sit them down and show them just what great entertainment they
are missing. Lynda Ford |
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