The curtains open to reveal a stylish sexagenarian draped in a
silky burgundy dressing gown lying across a bed, with a phone
clamped between her shoulder and ear. Her legs are splayed and her
fingers casually reach down to tease herself.
It is perhaps the only genuinely erotic moment in the play about
Jane Justa's "late life adventures in sex and romance". No sooner
than it is created, the vibe is broken by Jane's self-conscious
quip to her impassioned interlocutor: "Of course I'm alone - you
think I'd do this in front of an audience?", thus setting the
buoyant and informal tone for the rest of the play.
Retired English teacher Jane Justa, impeccably played by Cagney
and Lacey's Sharon Gless, is lonely. A divorcee with an estranged
son, she thinks the cure for her woes lies in finally ending her 30
year stint of celibacy. And so, she puts out a rather
unconventional ad in the New York Review of Books: "Before I turn
67 - next March - I would like to have a lot of sex with a man
I like. If you want to talk first, Trollope works for me".
What transpires is a series of propositions from various suitors
for the naïvely optimistic Jane to consider; disappointingly, the
crew who ultimately appear are far from motley as man after man
turns out to be a one dimensional sex-starved, misogynistic
geriatric male archetype who either objectifies, ridicules,
embarrasses, uses, or abuses Jane in various pseudo-comical and
sinister ways.
The single variation in this happens to be the 33-year-old
Graham, whose grotesquely cringe-worthy sensitivity, love for
English literature and ludicrous dismissal of age as an obstacle
makes him a clumsily convenient - and predictable - foil. He also,
with tactless serendipity, happens to be the same age as Jane's
estranged son, who makes his angry presence felt through spooky
fantastical scenes of Jane's imagination.
Jane's story is told in a light-hearted manner - with Jane
regularly slipping out of the events of the play to address the
audience directly, as if it were a one-woman show or monologue.
However, for a play that breaks through the fourth wall so
freely, the scenes with her son ring false - they take themselves
too seriously, jarring with the overall playfulness of the
production.
Perhaps more fitting is the quirky dramatisation of Jane's
favourite Trollope
novel, Miss MacKenzie - with amusing vigour and mock
seriousness, this imagined reality of Jane's is far more
convincing, poignant and entertaining than the scenes with her
son.
This stylistic inconsistency, however, coupled with a one
dimensional characters including clichéd hyperbolic misogynists and
- yes, of course, obviously, how could it not - a cheap gay joke
from a camp San Franciscan dancer about sexual health clinics, make
for a disappointing production. Furthermore, the glaring lack of
any subtlety in the script makes for laborious viewing. Jane's
daddy issues are spelt out like she were teaching Freud to one of
her Junior High students, while quips about age with infuriatingly
predictable punchlines come in rapid succession.
If the play was attempting to dissolve the stigma around old
people having sex, perhaps it somewhat succeeds - albeit
ungracefully. But despite some amusing social critiques about
attitudes towards sex and sexuality, including Jane's conservative
mother's amusing pearls of flawed wisdom - "men have animal
passions; it's a woman's duty to subdue them" - the play
ultimately misses the mark. Sadly, strong performances from the
cast, a truly exceptional rendition from Gless, and the odd witty
quip here and there aren't enough to redeem a script which cares
little for characters or plausibility and much more for easy jokes
and painless plot progression.
A Round-Heeled Woman is
playing at the Aldwych Theatre until 14 January 2012
TOP PRICE TICKET FOR £35 TO SEE A ROUND-HEELED
WOMAN
Aldwych Theatre
To take advantage of this great deal, please call 0844 847 2429 and
quote 'Diva'
Terms and Conditions:
Top price ticket for £35.00
Valid on top price tickets, normally priced at £45.00 only. Valid
Monday - Friday evening performances and Thursday, Saturday
matinees until 14 January 2012. £1.00 Theatre restoration levy to
be added.
All tickets are subject to availability and offer does not apply to
tickets already purchased. Booking and transaction fees may
apply.
PHOTO: Tristram Kenton
