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When 13-year-old Nicky enters a writing competition with a sparkling essay describing her family, she adds a few embellishments. Her actual relatives are rather less perfect than those she describes and are going — not very prettily — through a range of life-changes. Her mum, Yvonne (Gemma Whelan), is frazzled by domesticity yet fretful about empty nest syndrome; her dad, Steve (Michael Jibson), has embraced a midlife crisis by trying out a succession of unwise hobbies; her teenage brother, Matt (Luke Lambert), has become a mumbling, resentful goth who claims to have married his girlfriend in a pagan woodland ceremony; and her gran (Gay Soper) is forgetting things too often.
And that’s before we get to Auntie Sian (Victoria Elliott), who is powering through unsuitable men at impressive speed. But Nicky wins the competition and with it the family holiday of her choice. What destination to choose to bring her fragmented household back together?
Tim Firth’s charming, if predictable, musical premiered in 2013 and now gets a pleasing, zesty revival in the hands of Vicky Featherstone, former artistic director of the Royal Court Theatre. Chloe Lamford’s little wooden Wendy house set fits snugly into Southwark Playhouse’s newer, compact Elephant space and reflects the fairytale family Nicky wishes she had, while Firth’s droll lyrics and delicately orchestrated score, played live, express the characters’ discontent. Their problems are fairly standard — they’re not going to give one of Tennessee Williams’s families a run for their money — but they feel big to the individuals and that is well expressed here.
The first half takes too long to establish the terrain and to get us to the point where they family head off on holiday. It’s when they arrive at their destination that the narrative deepens: Nicky has eschewed the beauty spots of the world and dragged them to the damp campsite where Mum and Dad first met. A lot of rain, and some home truths later — together with a very touching number about Gran’s wandering mind — and the family resolves into an imperfect but happier state.
The gear change is deftly handled by the cast, who bring warmth and frayed credibility to their characters. Particularly fine are Whelan, as a woman who has lost her sparky self in domestic routine, and Soper as Gran, scared by the sudden new gaps in her memory.
The heart of the show is Nancy Allsop as Nicky. It’s not easy to play sweet, good-natured characters but Allsop brings a lovely sincerity to Nicky and she has a crystal voice. “This is my family,” she sings at the end, with a mix of affection and resignation.
★★★☆☆
To July 12, southwarkplayhouse.co.uk
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