Allegra
Review by Penny
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Allegra can’t help herself from singing, in her head or out loud to anyone she thinks needs a touch of joy. When this isn’t the most warmly received by everyone, her carer Anna and brother Ronen try to help reign her in.
The script, written by Peter Quilter, has some excellently good punchlines, though it becomes somewhat reliant on them at the expense of any real depth. It is a shame, too, that the wonderful humour of Ronen’s character isn’t delivered with the dryness required to bring the character to life. The primary challenge of this play is its inability to connect us to the characters. The premise is told to us rather than shown; there are some incredibly poignant takeaways, from the more philosophical to narrative-based questions, and yet we barely scratch the surface of any of them. We don’t have enough time to fall in love with Allegra so then even moments when we are encouraged to join in with her singing feel forced rather than willingly engaged with. We also don’t get to see her character change for long enough to grieve what she once was as the other characters do. Much of the story makes little sense, and it is unfortunate that we aren’t drawn into this off-the-wall world of whimsy well enough to allow ourselves to enjoy it.
Maureen Lipman is sensational with this script. She understands this character deeply and navigates the line between self-aware humour and jokes at her expense brilliantly. However, when it comes to performing the musical numbers littered throughout the piece, Lipman fails to command the stage as she does for the rest of the show. The unaccompanied songs feel particularly needlessly drawn out, and those given more orchestration and stage presence are still largely underwhelming.
Justin Williams’ set is a fun hodgepodge of quaint chaos with a few hidden (if disappointingly lacklustre) surprises. The choice to use projection for some aspects of the set is a touch of whimsy that comes into its own when transforming the space into a karaoke screen for the audience, though the projected judge that looms over us later in the play is jarringly ineffective.