Major new stage adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women reviewed
Little Women
at the Oxford Playhouse
from Tuesday, May 27 – Sunday 31
Review by JON LEWIS
The Four Sisters
Hymns, carols and battle songs abound in Loveday Ingram’s well-acted production of Louisa May Alcott’s semi-autobiographical novel Little Women, published in 1868-9. In Anne-Marie Casey’s adaptation, the womenfolk in the March household treat their gatherings around the upright piano rather like photographs, moments of togetherness and resilience to take off the shelf years later after the daughters’ trajectories divide the family.
The narrative takes place during the American Civil War which was fought a few years before publication with the March family residing in rural New England. They live in relatively straitened times because the head of the family, Mr March is serving as a chaplain in the Union army after mismanagement of the family finances. He is not seen but his absence is tangible. His wife, Marmee (Ellie Pawsie, understudy for Honeysuckle Weeks) pragmatically raises her four daughters, constantly aware of other families’ suffering, especially if they are poor, like some German immigrant neighbours who catch scarlet fever.
Alcott’s alter ego is Jo (Grace Molony, a luminous performance), a teenager aspiring to be a writer. She sends stories to popular newspapers, using her pay to supplement the family’s income. The prettiest sister, Meg (Jade Kennedy), sees her future as a wife and mother, strategically using local balls to show off her dancing skills, even if her high heels are impractical. There’s the socially ambitious sister, Amy (Imogen Elliott) who quickly latches onto the fussy Aunt March (a fun cameo from Belinda Lang) when she proposes a European tour, and then the artistic sister Beth (Catherine Chalk), burdened with a weak constitution but the sister with the kindest heart.
Jo befriends their immediate neighbour, the orphan Laurie (Cillian Lenaghan) but rejects his proposal of marriage. He studies abroad for three years where he meets Amy and Aunt March on their travels. Laurie is tutored by the kindly John Brooke who marries Meg (Jim Kelly, understudy for Jack Ashton). Kelly also plays Jo’s eventual suitor, the German academic, Professor Bhaer whom she meets in New York, simply suggested by some lit window frames (design, Ruari Murchison).
Well-received by a full house.