THEATRE REVIEW: Love All (Jermyn Street Theatre, London)

 

Introduction

‘Love All’ is a stage comedy, written by Dorothy L. Sayers (best known for the ‘Lord Peter Wimsey’ stories) presented in April 1940 at the Torch Theatre in Knightsbridge. Rather than being a crime drama, the play is instead a parody of the light romantic comedies that were a theatre staple in the 1920s and ‘30s. In it Sayers satirises the genre whilst discussing her beliefs about women and society, discussing the issue of career versus family. Unfortunately, the play was not commercially successful, and this production at the Jermyn Street Theatre as part of their ‘Temptations’ season represents the first major revival in seventy years.

 

Plot

Lydia thought abandoning the West End to elope to Venice with a romantic novelist would be exciting. But Godfrey writes all day, his divorce is taking forever, and the Grand Canal smells ghastly. Back in London, a new female playwright is taking theatreland by storm, and Lydia resolves to return to England bag herself the role of a lifetime. What could possibly go wrong ?

 

Review

Cards on the table, the presence of Alan Cox (Watson in ‘Young Sherlock Holmes’) was what initially drew me to this production, alongside my love of Sayers’ crime fiction. However, this is a play about its female protagonists, Emily Barber as Lydia and Leah Whitaker as Janet, the mysterious playwright. Both were outstanding. Act One, set in a room overlooking Venice’s Grand Canal, was witty in showing how after eighteen months a paradise can become a hell, but it is not until Acts Two and Three (after the interval) where the scene changes to a room overlooking London’s Grand Junction Canal (involving the stage crew spending the whole interval moving furniture around the open plan stage of the Jermyn Street Theatre) that the real laughs come.

Act Two was the closest to farce with a wonderful example of talking at cross-purposes between Alan Cox and Daniel Burke (playing a wonderfully over-the-top young actor) with latter repeatedly calling Godfrey Mr. Daybreak rather than Mr. Daybrook, before ending with a long expected re-entrance of a character from Act One right on cue. Act Three is where Sayers focuses even more on her female characters allowing some wonderful witticisms about the relationships between men and women, before a kangaroo court is held with Henry Norton theatrical manager (Jim Findley – Mercer in ‘Resurrection of the Daleks’) acting as judge. The cast was rounded out by Bethan Cullinane and Karen Ascoe as two secretaries, with very different approaches to their job.

I was also amused that the cast list on the prominent poster for Janet’s first hit ‘Mare’s Nest’ was entirely made up of characters from the ‘Wimsey’ canon  (Harriet Vane and Mervyn Bunter being the giveaways).  

Definitely recommended.

Rating: 

 

‘Love All' runs at the Jermyn Street Theatre, London, until 8th October 2022
(https://www.jermynstreettheatre.co.uk/show/love-all/)