UK Theatre Network

Women On The Verge Of HRT

UK Tour

Reviewed at Darlington Civic Theatre

Anna and Vera are best friends with a few things in common – both are the wrong side of 40, both have husband troubles and a love of Irish crooner Daniel O’Donnell.

‘Women On The Verge Of HRT’, written by Marie Jones, looks at a catalystic episode in the lives of the two women, as they confront their fears and face the realities of their lives. Starring Louise Jameson and Janet Dibley, it had the makings of an entertaining and thought-provoking piece of theatre.

Sadly, in reality it is an exceptionally queasy mixture of indisciplined farce and soggy sentiment with a plot too preposterous and tediously complex to describe in detail. Suffice to say that it starts off reasonably within the realms of believability but soon descends into a man-bashing bizarre and surreal piece of bilge with clod-hopping dialogue.

Although Jameson and Dibley both work hard with the two-dimensional parts of Vera and Anna they are unable to triumph against the inadequacies and indignities of the script and their performances play to diminishing returns.

The humour is pitched strictly at sit-com level and the third character, Feargal the Daniel O’Donnell look-alike (played by Aidan O’Neill), seems to have been added in as an afterthought. It seems almost as though Jones started out with the intention of producing an earnest two-hander that would take a bitter-sweet look at the lives of ‘women of a certain age’ then, after several large glasses of wine, thought: ‘Bugger that!’ and opted to make it a farce instead.

Darlington Civic Theatre have hosted several productions aimed at a predominantly female gaze, recently, and it is obvious that direct comparisons would be made between them. ‘Hot Flush!’ made no attempt to conceal its tongue-in-cheek, revue-like take on the menopause and succeeded as a result. Had ‘Women On The Verge Of HRT’ ensured that it was certain of what genre it wanted to sit within it would, perhaps, have been more cohesive, less of a mish-mash and maybe even a success.

Steve Burbridge.