Little Women is a classic novel familiar to many. Having never read the book, I approached the story with very different expectations from others in the audience, though I had seen the stage musical version many years ago.
This version of Louisa May Alcott’s story has been adapted by Anne-Marie Casey.
Following the lives of the March sisters, Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy with this coming-of-age themes of love, loss and ambition.
Set at the time of the American Civil War, their father has gone to war and the family struggles financially. Their mother known as Marmee holds the family together along with the domineering Aunt March.
The four sisters all bring different elements to their characters.
Jo, Natalie Dunne, is fiercely independent and goes through the greatest emotional changes and feels she has more depth as the character than her sisters. Meg, Jade Oswald, has an inner strength with a hint of pureness.
Beth, Megan Richards, is much more tender and timid. Amy, Jewelle Hutchinson, appears full of self-importance and materialistic before maturing.
Marmee, Juliet Aubrey, is very business-like as she keeps the family together trying to keep everyone protected and safe.
Aunt March, Belinda Lang, is stern, imposing and forceful, but shows humour and a tenderness with possible weaknesses in herself.
The effective set design creates not only the interior of the March family home, but is also interspersed with bare tree trunks giving the sense of the exterior and interior.
This is the style of setting I really enjoy as it allows our imagination to enter their world in several ways, especially during the ice-skating scene.
Usually in the second act the pace of a show speeds up towards its conclusion, but here it slows down developing a deeper poignancy leading to the point where we leave the March family.
Join the March family at Darlington Hippodrome, for a mix of humour, love and loss. It will be well worth the visit.
Little Women runs until Saturday October 4, Darlington Hippodrome.
