Shropshire Events and Whats On Guide

Shropshire Events and Whats On Guide

Theatre Review : Anne of Green Gables

redheadChris Eldon Lee reviews ‘Anne of Green Gables’ which arrives at Bridgnorth Theatre on the Steps on the 28th and 30th of April and May 1st.

Somehow Anne of Green Gables passed me by in childhood. I guess I was too hung up on Swallows and Amazons … but in Anne I found a character just as perky and plucky as Able Seaman Titty. Both fictitious girls have wide ranging imaginations and the innate ability to make up stories to fit the few facts before them.

Both are very much pastoral novels in which the tragedies are small, the joys gentle and the romance totally innocent.

Redhead Reach Productions are on a mission to celebrate flaming hair. The central character of Montgomery’s early 20th century Canadian novel has red hair, as does Collene Webb who has adapted it for the stage, produced the play, composed the music and takes the lead. As someone not overly endowed with any hair at all, it had never occurred to me that hair of any colour could be such a burden. “I can’t be happy with red hair”, says Anne, “it’s my life long sorrow”. She’s only 11 when she says that, and I suspect her counter manipulative trait might prove to be a bigger problem.

Collene is robust, sure footed and earnest as the king pin of the production and she’s gathered around her a handful of sensitive and versatile actors who put in heart-warming performances. Philip Jennings is charmingly down to earth and endearing as Matthew Cuthbert who orders a boy from the orphanage to help him on his farm, only to get a girl with all her worldly goods in a carpetbag.

His wife (a beautifully handled role by Sarah Gordon) wants to send Anne back, pointing out that a girl is no good for them. “But maybe we’ll be good for her”, he replies. And so the story is set.

It’s the flash-in-the-pan camoes that catch the eye. Sarah later returns to great comic effect as a sycophantic school swot and Alexander Clifford steals the show as a chaotic (female) neighbour; while Vicky Glover seems to dig deep into her own childhood to play Anne’s loyal Best Friend For Ever.

Bearing in mind the central character is supposed to have such an inquisitive and imaginative mind, the adaptation of her story and the production of it are surprisingly literal and prosaic. The stage is split in twain, which produces a Wimbledon effect in the neck muscles. Some of the stagecraft becomes repetitive and the need to negotiate the set introduces clunkiness and hesitation. The show would flow much better if the audience was allowed to use its own imagination. That goes for the prolonged sound effects too. And why is so much of the lovely singing relegated off stage.

But the sincerity of the performances rises high above the practical limitations and the spirit of the story vanquished the touring troubles. There is more irony to be wrought from the novel and tongues could be pushed a little further into cheeks; but this is a very creditable, homespun representation of a rarely staged story, which proves that red heads can rule. Fans of the book will doubtless be delighted.