The Wedding Speech – Vault Festival

The Wedding Speech is a one-woman show all about a toxic mother-daughter relationship. Rose has been asked to do a speech at her mother’s wedding. But Rose is hiding in the toilets as she would prefer to tell the audience the truth about how her mother mistreats her. This is a story about co-dependency and different ways two people deal with trauma. The show reaches a huge climax when Rose finally gives her speech.

Cheryl May Coward-Walker’s play deals with the toxic parental relationship issue in a setting that has a lot of room for comedic moments. There are serious heart-warming messages to take away, as Rose tells the audience her experiences and tries to comfort herself. But the stream of consciousness causes some pacing issues. There are a lot of key moments off-stage. This takes the actor out of the moment and detracts from the acting. The play could have potentially been more powerful if these moments happened right in front of the audience.

Princess Donnough is a talented actor who engages the audience quickly. She quickly draws the audience in by speaking directly to them and interacts with ease in a way that will make them comfortable. Princess responded well to audience reactions with her improvisation, she connected with the character Rose with realistic emotions in a believable way. It was a joy seeing Princess use props and the staging to take the audience on Rose’s journey. Princess’ portrayal of the character is the strength that holds this piece together.

Paula Chitty put together a beautiful set that was used to its full advantage and was easy to be transformed into different places. I particularly enjoyed the lighting affects used to create further drama. Will Pritchard’s sound design was also fantastic and added to Princess’ natural storytelling.

There are elements of The Wedding Speech that come together to tell a realistic story about a toxic mother daughter relationship. This play in its current format would work well in a small studio space where the actor is closer to the audience during the pivotal door talking scenes. However, it could be more powerful to see the conflicts play out between the mother and daughter on stage. The ending of the show was quite abrupt and left the audience questioning the reliability of Rose as a narrator, this took away from the powerful and affirming moments earlier in the play.

Reviewed: Jennifer Laishley

Reviewed: 24th February 2023

North West End UK Rating: ★★★