Me and Cilla
June 17, 2008
Venue: Live Theatre, Newcastle
Date Reviewed: 17th June, 2008
As a ten minute play by Lee Mattinson, Me and Cilla won the BBC/Live Theatre’s “Short Fuse” Competition in 2005, but three years later it has tried to grow in to two and half hour play. Unfortunately there is not enough substance to keep this black-comedy going as a full play.
Set in the present day, the action takes place in Cilla Stephenson’s front room, where she is preparing for a Christmas Eve party. The failed cabaret singer is contending with her son announcing he is now wanting to live as a woman as she prepares the buffet.
Switching from being Cilla (Tracy Gilman), the mum and housewife, to Cilla Black,the singer, who she idolises, we are treated to Cilla Blacks back catalogue as the play progresses. The impersonation at times reminded me of the play Little Voice.
Her son, of course called Alfie, is first seen in jeans and teenage bra as he tries to settle in to being called Deborah. Unfortunately this is uncomfortable to watch, as David Tute, in his first professional stage role, appears too young to portray this gender changing role. It is hard to accept that a boy of his age will be ready to change his gender by surgery, a process that is graphically discussed in act two, with comic results.
Helping Cilla prepare the buffet is her next door neighbour and Avon Lady, Sadie Taylor played by Vicky Elliot. It is Elliot who grabs her role and injects the much needed comedy; in fact she is a one woman tour de force and steals the show from Gilman.
When we realise Sadie is having an affair with Cilla’s husband, we know it will not be long before the relationship is common knowledge. But again it is left to Elliot to add the much needed comedy when Cilla and her husband (played by Bill Fellows) argue over the affair.
The father and son reconciliation as they both accept how ill Cilla is, fails to move, as we have not witnessed any real breakdown in their relationship. Certainly the father did not accept the situation when his son thought he was gay but now , although certainly not happy , he takes it in his stride when asked to accept him no longer as Alfie but as Deborah.
Directed by Steve Gilroy, with designer Gary McCann, utilising the Live Stage as Cilla’s front room, this production does not let you care about Cilla and without that there is no heart to the story.
This show relies too much on Vicky Elliot to pull the comedy out and while she is excellent in her role, and it is worth seeing just to see her , there is not enough material to stretch to two and a half hours. Trying to combine subjects as serious as cancer, changing gender and extra martial affairs in to a black-comedy just does not work, especially when interspaced with Cilla Black songs.
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