Jez Butterworth graces us with another play with depth and wonder, beautifully directed by Sam Mendes. The play currently resides at Harold Pinter Theatre in which the world is clear and grand as we walk into a house with a huge staircase, old wooden design and a little bar filled with very old alcohol. The staircase seems like it goes up and on forever, set in a hotel in the 80s which once in the past housed very many visitors but always 4 young girls and their mother. We switch from present day to past, now the mother is dying, the girls all await their eldest sister Joan to come say goodbye. In the past we watch the mother run the home, military style as the girls practice their singing and dancing with the biggest dreams of making it to the London Palladium. Their mother also, pushing for this hope that one day they may be stars and will do absolutely anything to make it happen.
The girls now grown up have developed very different lives but the one things that bounds them together is the absence of Joan. Jill (Helena Wilson), the home bird sacrificed the best part of her 20s to keep her mother company. Ruby (Orphelia Lovibond) besotted with Joan tries to replicate her looks and feistiness but can’t knock the overwhelming anxiety she has. Now married to Dennis and with one child returns to the hotel from her not too far away home elsewhere. Gloria (Leanne Best) returns with a bang, sweaty and horrendously angry at the heat, two children and very cautious husband —- she faces no fear in doing what’s right and calling out those with selfish beliefs. Jill’s hope is to wait till Joan is home- if she does come back. Her motive is to reconcile the family after many years of distance and silence from Joan’s part. No one quite knows what happened to Joan that ‘one night’ but it changed the course of their future as a family.
The story is split between the past and present. The first time we visit the past, the grand staircase begins to move, their younger selves like ghosts float past them and into their day, now back in time with their mother (Laura Donnelly) young and healthy making them practice for their upcoming show. Immediately we feel more connected to the girls, seeing them in their youth and we begin to understand how much of an effect the absence of Joan is doing to them. Whether it’s out of jealousy for the life they think she lives in California or whether it’s passion that if they couldn’t do it, at least she’s doing it for them. It’s an incredibly mesmerising story to see, the actors are completely outstanding in their realness and pain for grieving two people, one very much alive and one at their end of their life.
The younger girls rehearse their singing and dancing- at times this felt a little too staged. As they perform out to us, I felt a slight hesitation for whether the audience should applaud? Whether this is intended or just an awkward thing audiences feel they need to do, I felt like it could have been more accurate for the girls to be performing to their mother rather than out to us.
Their younger selves hold the story of that ‘One Night’ in which they are performing to an American agent in hopes to building a future on the stage. The mother will only show her desperation alone, of course the agent only has eyes for one of the four siblings and wishes to watch her perform alone. Here begins the crack. What the girls wish to believe happened, what the mother allowed to happen and the only person who could answer is now (as we meet her in act 3) harsh and brutal with no wish to pacify her sisters.
I believe the best thing about this play is the performance of the cast. Incredible timing, pace and emotional range was so beautiful to see. It was a very difficult story to tell and what could have been the easy choice was never taken. It leaves so much room for thought and moments still feel really haunting to think about.
Booking until 15th June, https://hillsofcaliforniaplay.com/
Reviewer: Alice Rose
Reviewed: 9th February 2024
North West End UK Rating: