Reviewed at: Leeds Playhouse by Michelle Rawlins
Thirty years after the late Kay Mellor’s ‘A Passionate Woman’ was first staged at Leeds Playhouse, it seems only fitting that this tremendous northern show returns to the very theatre where it premiered in 1993.
A story of love, loss and relationships, it focuses on the disillusioned and confused Betty. On the day of her son’s wedding she dramatically locks herself in the attic of the respectable family home as she struggles to accept that her only child, Mark (Tom Lorcan), is finally leaving home. Or in her words ‘abandoning her’ to set up house with the woman of his dreams.
This will no doubt resonate with so many parents, as they are left with no choice but to let their children fly the nest, and accept they are no longer the most important people in their lives.
The pivotal moment acts as a catalyst for Betty to question her own life and the unforgettable sacrifices she was forced to make. What makes this show particularly wonderful is the knowledge that Mellor created it after her mum told her about her own youth, when she’d had ‘a bit of a thing’, with a Polish fairground worker. He was a man ‘who she’d loved with every breath of her body’ and had stolen her heart.
In the retelling of that love affair, the iconic playwright and screenwriter – who passed away last year – realised her mum, who’d been married twice unsuccessfully, really had been a passionate woman. And there was a strong chance her story would touch the hearts of countless others.
She wasn’t wrong; after being originally performed in the Courtyard theatre, within the Playhouse, the acclaimed production transferred to the West End before touring nationally and internationally.
Now three decades later the hit show is successfully entertaining a delighted audience once again.
The play moves between the comedic and a poignantly emotional narrative. There are Betty’s continually sharp, on-point and insightful one-liners, especially her rants about the chores of supermarket shopping. Then we see the now redundant housewife questioning how her life became so routinely, and irrevocably, dull.
Katherine Dow Blyton, well known for her parts in Emmerdale, Casualty, Silent Witness, to name but a few, is superbly cast in the lead role as Betty, a woman who has finally accepted she never really got over the loss of her unrequited passion, ‘Craze’, who had lived in the flat downstairs.
As she reminisces about what could have been and what to do with the rest of her life, she is ‘visited’ by the former lothario, Craze, (Michael Bijok) who comes back from the dead and tries to woo her to the other side of the pearly gates. As Betty remembers their heated, passionate and clandestine affair, she’s tempted (I mean, who wouldn’t be?)
Her poor bewildered, and, as it turns out, lonely husband Donald, performed exquisitely by stage veteran, David Crellan, is left flummoxed by his wife’s extraordinarily out-of-character behaviour. Especially when she, quite comically, risks life and limb and climbs onto the roof of their suburban terrace and waves at the somewhat baffled bride-to-be below. All to the delight of their curtain twitching neighbours, who love nothing more than having something to gossip about.
Expertly directed by another northern stalwart, Tess Seddon, this wonderful, dialogue rich, four-person show, leaves you laughing out loud one moment, before skilfully segwaying you into poignant moments of loss and regret, contemplating roads left untravelled, and considering if the future can make up for missed opportunities.
The simple, yet effective set, designed by Linbury Prize winner, Rose Revitt, alternates between the dusty loft, full of unspoken secrets and sentimental memories, and the perilous roof top, complementing and supporting the rich script.
There’s a timeless quality about A Passionate Woman; a true testament and fitting tribute to Mellor’s remarkable ability to perfectly capture and transfer the most pertinent moments of life’s complex tapestry to the stage and I have no doubt it will carry on capturing the hearts of theatre goers for many more years to come.
Tickets here
Showing until June 10 2023