Your child’s wedding day is one of most stressful events for any parent, but in Betty Derbyshire’s case it has brought all her regrets into sharp focus as she totally melts down barricading herself in the loft while her son frantically tries to save his big day.
Middle aged Leeds housewife Betty is battling with empty nest syndrome as her only son starts a new life, living a lie in a loveless marriage, hiding some age old secrets, and being joined in the loft by the ghost of her long dead lover, who may or may not be in her head.
It’s thirty years since Leeds writing legend Kay Mellor’s debut play was performed in this theatre, and her sharp ear for how working class people speak and think means it very much stands the test of time. One woman in the audience reflecting on this bittersweet work suggested there were echoes of Victoria Wood, but no tweeness here as Mellor is unafraid to peel back the layers that ruthlessly reveals an unfulfilled life.
Betty is onstage virtually the whole time, often talking as if to the audience, so it requires an actor of great skill to carry off a story based on Mellor’s own mum. Emmerdale stalwart Katherine Dow Blyton is just sensational as a frustrated woman forced to finally face up to herself. All actors who’ve been in nightly recurring dramas are expected to move from comedy to high drama, often in the same scene, and Dow Blyton executes the frequent gear changes from Mellor’s often laugh out loud one-liners to Betty’s anguish with precession, and crucially as someone raised locally has an ear for the Leeds accent and inflections.
This is a really funny piece, but exasperation in comedy is all too often overplayed, not here as Tom Lorcan as panicking groom Mark seeing the clock ticking down to disaster is just on the right side. His witty reading of Mark is the perfect foil for his newly passionate mum who starts off as Hyacinth Bucket, and ends up as Shirley Valentine.
David Crellin has the toughest task playing typical eighties husband Donald, who knows his wife can’t stand him as he tries to tough it out, but he manages to reveal a man way out of his emotional depth, even with Mark whom he has never hugged. Michael Bijok is nicely louche as Betty’s ghostly Polish lover Craze.
Tess Seddon is rapidly becoming one of our best young directors, really understanding when to let Mellor’s sharp text breathe, as well as managing the physical comedy on a set that gets increasingly complex. Another rising star is designer Rose Revitt who delivers a loft dotted with the long-forgotten detritus of married life, but all in a grey palette that subtly captures Betty’s passion-free suburban life.
A Passionate Woman managed to speak to a middle aged male critic and to my 18 year old daughter because it is clear eyed about the complexities of human relationships, and as the cast took their curtain call an older woman behind me remarked: ‘that was so Kay Mellor’. Very true, and there can be no greater tribute to a genuinely great writer and patron of this theatre who passed away last year.
This play was where a passionate woman like Kay Mellor found her voice, and from then on selflessly offered it to ordinary women who didn’t have one like Betty.
A Passionate Woman is Leeds Playhouse to 10th June. To book 0113 213 7700 or www.leedsplayhouse.org.uk
Reviewer: Paul Clarke
Reviewed: 24th May 2023
North West End UK Rating: