Di and Viv and Rose at The Spring Arts Centre in Havant REVIEW: 'A performance that deserves to be seen'
Amelia Bullmore’s Di and Viv and Rose is the February offering from The Bench.
It’s a play about which I knew nothing. Coming out, I offered up a prayer of thanks for director Mark Wakeman’s having suggested it for performance.
What a cracker of a play – and under Wakeman’s thoughtful direction, the cast of three give a cracker of an evening’s entertainment.
It’s not original in its concept – it follows three women who meet at university, who grow together, who experience life and who both love and – at times – despise one another.
Bullmore’s dialogue is superbly crafted and sits so comfortably in the mouths of the three performers that, at times, you could forget you’re watching actors at work. Bullmore pulls no punches, either, with her text which takes us into some very dark and dangerous waters – as well as stretching the English language to its ultimate boundary. That said, it is also hilarious.
Jo Langfield (of whom I am a very big fan indeed) is Rose, the posh girl who discovers the opposite sex and makes it her personal mission to make sure they discover her. Liz Donnelly has the trickiest job as Viv; her character is the most subtle of the three, but Donnelly charts her course through the character well, shining particularly in her argument with Angie McKeown’s Di at the end of the show.
There is not a weak link here – all three performers are wonderful – and it’s a performance that deserves to be seen.
I suspect, like me, you’ll love it.
Until Saturday.