Little Women – Live Art Alive

Jessica Brydges, Julia Brown, Kacey Ainsworth, Rachael McAllister and Meg Chaplin as The March family in Little Women at HOME
Image credit: Chris Payne

Written by Louisa May Alcott

Adapted by Anne-Marie Casey

Directed by Brigid Larmour

HOME in association with Pitlochry Festival Theatre

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First published in 1868 this well loved American semi-autobiographical classic tells the story of four sisters who are navigating their teens as they each grapple with what it means to become Little Women. Set during the American Civil War the story unfolds as their mother Marmee holds the home together while their father is off to war and this genteel family adjust to becoming impoverished.

Anne-Marie Casey keeps faithful to the original text while managing to include the main events of the original and its follow-up Little Wives. The focus is firmly on Alcott’s main themes of domesticity, work and true love as the sisters navigate supporting each other financially within the constraints of New England society while deciding if it’s ever possible to marry both for love and financial security.

This is a great piece in that it puts women at its forefront with a range of interesting roles. In this adaptation it is stripped back to just eight actors with six of them women. The ever wonderful Susan Twist does an inspired turn as Aunt March. Imperious and acidic, she is a force to be reckoned with as this elegant patrician attempts to maintain standards for one of New England’s finest families. Kacey Ainsworth is a fine actress who looks perfectly cast as Marmee but at times feels under used and constrained by either the script or Brigid Larmour‘s considered direction. She exudes love and patience as she tries to be a good mother and a dutiful wife and neighbour while worrying about the financial future of her brood.

Susan Twist and Rachael McAllister as Aunt March and Jo in Little Women at HOME.
Image credit: Chris Payne

The sisters are led by Jo who sees herself as rough and wild. She is the aspiring writer who wants home and hearth to remain unchanged forever and her character is based on Alcott herself. Rachael McAllister plays her with passionate enthusiasm giving free rein to Jo’s impetuousity and bad temper as well as her fierce love of family. However there are times when her gauche clumsiness and mulish ways veer too much towards the huffiness of a difficult child and get in the way of taking her seriously as the writer and woman she is attempting to become. Jessica Brydges as Meg seems less conceited than in the original text so her journey to contented marriage with the impoverished but honourable John seems less dramatically interesting. Meg Chaplin is utterly believable as the delicate and docile Beth and her piano playing and singing add a lovely additional element to this production. The youngest and traditionally least likeable sister is Amy who has the most growing up to do. Actress Julia Brown really shines as she delivers a performance that allows her character to grow from a petulant and vindictive child to a worldly and emotionally wise young woman who is ultimately a much better wife for Laurie than Jo could have ever been.

Daniel Francis Swaby gives Laurie plenty of charm and a laconic wit. He has a winsome energy and at times an emotional intelligence that sometimes seems at odds with his attachment for Jo but make for a vibrant addition to the pacing of this production when he is on stage. Tom Richardson plays John Brooks and Professor Bhaer giving both men real decency, compassion and humour. He is especially good as he mentors Jo in New York as the exiled German Professor who passionately believes in the power and importance of The Arts.

Daniel Francis Swaby as Laurie in Little Women at HOME. Image credit: Chris Payne

The set design by Ruari Murchison is visually striking as the tall fine birches of New England stand strong whether in snowy woodland, winter ice skating or in the March home or streets of New York. The staging is simple but ambitious and effective. However the use of several main props so close to the front and sides of the stage may make for tricky sight lines for some audience members. The stage is beautifully lit and the subtle use of sound such as the ticking clock, crackling of ice on a lake or the peal of bells as war ends is a genius touch by Niroshini Thambar.

The script and the thoughtful direction by Brigid Larmour makes for an enjoyable production peppered with moments of warm humour, a depth of love and genuine pathos and despair that reflect real family life both now and in the time Alcott was writing about her Little Women. There are times when the slow pace can be frustrating but as a well rendered piece of nostalgia for the stage this production has much to recommend it.

HOME 8th – 23rd December 2023

Adapted from Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women by Figs in Wigs

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Is this a feminist deconstruction of a revered classic novel? Is it poking fun at the many movie versions? Perhaps it is a clever take on climate change? Or simply a bizarre series of infomercials for juicing machines and vibrating exercise platforms? I’m not entirely certain that the five strong ensemble that is Figs in Wigs are any clearer than the audience.

A whirlwind first act that is a similar length to the interval break seems to be a trailer full of spoilers to Little Wimmin spliced with an idiots guide to Little Women. Dressed in floaty gowns while suspended midair with fluffy cloud wigs the Figs manage to both enchant and irritate. They appear to be both artful and artless in their delivery, creating a challenge for the audience…do we want to come back after the interval and wait almost 2 hours to see the little Wimmin make a margarita or shall we bugger off at the interval and just order one at the bar?

Act 2 opens like an am-dram performance that appears to be a faithful rendition of the classic…just very orange. If the past was all white lace gloves then the present for Figs in Wigs, and undoubtedly the future, is orange…very orange indeed. Meg manages, Jo lollops, Meg simpers (and dies) and Amy flounces. Oh and the Christmas tree breaks the fourth wall to give a sneering critique of the show so far before lip syncing to the Chris Rea classic Driving Home for Christmas with a delivery that would not look out of place on Rupaul’s Drag Race.

There are radical hair restyles, arson, births and deaths all interspersed with prolonged crying. It feels like this pain will never end…When will it be over? These phrases repeatedly occur as time fractures, ice sculptures melt on tea trays, jelly wobbles on vibrating plates and rugs are beaten in an orgasmic frenzy. There is a pervading sense of what mind blowing creative carnage might occur if you locked these five in a rehearsal space with Forced Entertainment and Rashdash.

There are some clever and beautifully choreographed dance sequences, especially the piece depicting time against a backdrop of faded replications of the performance that is very effective. Genius moments include an unforgettable delivery of Edith Piaf’s Je ne regrette rien and Lynchian sequences where a giant lace glove dances alongside a horse in a pin stripe suit. Limes fall from the sky and are rhythmically squeezed by an industrial juicer before being decanted into a giant cocktail glass and drank by the famous five now clad in you guessed it – orange hazmat suits.

This is not a show for the faint hearted or the easy confused. However it is a delight if you like your absurdist theatre orange…very orange indeed. With a pinch of subversion, a dash of too clever for its own good, a drip of climate change politics and a squirt of feminism Little Wimmin is a theatrical cocktail.

HOME 5th -14th March 2020

All images by Jemima Yong