Tamsin Greig heads a strong cast in this stage-musical version of Spanish director Pedro Almodovar’s Oscar-winning film Women On The Verge of A Nervous Breakdown. See what we thought in our Theatre Review!
Set in Madrid in 1987 while Spain was still basking in the joy of post-Franco freedoms, Greig plays Pepa Marcos, a successful actress who earns her considerable income from TV commercials and from dubbing foreign films. Her life begins to unravel when her long-time partner, Ivan, also an actor, cruelly dumps her with a message left on her answering machine.
As events spiral out of control and she heads towards the nervous breakdown of the title, she encounters Lucia, brilliantly played by Haydn Gwynne as a cross between Cruella de Ville and Norma Desmond. Lucia, who remains Ivan’s wife despite more than 20 years of separation, isn’t so much heading towards a nervous breakdown as heading towards total meltdown, having previously spent many years in a psychiatric hospital. She is suing Ivan for damages assisted by her fiery feminist lawyer Paulina, who turns out to be the latest object of Ivan’s lust, and the reason why he dumped Pepa.
In a fabulous courtroom performance, Lucia poignantly explains that she is not looking for financial compensation from Ivan, but to have her lost years returned to her. Lucia frantically semaphores her meltdown through her wardrobe, flaunting key items from her lost decade – the 1960s – with a pink Jackie O-style coat and white boots.
Meanwhile Lucia’s son (and Ivan’s, of course) Carlos (Haydn Oakley) and his uptight fiancee, Marisa (Seline Hizli) go house-hunting and turn up at Pepa’s apartment in the hope of buying it. Further complications arise when Pepa’s friend, the model Candela (Anna Skellern) gets involved with terrorist Malik (Nuno Quiemado) and tries to take refuge from the police in her friend’s apartment.
The Sondheimesque music and lyrics by David Yazbek, are all performed with great energy and pzazz by this multi-talented cast, and while you won’t go home humming the tunes, you will love them for the way they lift the story re-created for the stage by Jeffrey Lane.
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