Stripped

Hannah Chalmers is undeniably impressive in this one-hour monologue,
apparently based on her own life, about a nightclub stripper learning
(and breaking) the rules. Flesh-enthusiasts will be disappointed:
there’s no stripping, an apt metaphor for a play in which the central
character is a bit-part with whom we don’t spend enough time to really
empathise.

The people she meets (creepy boss, ball-breaker colleague etc) are
much better characterised. The posh businessman (with the manner of
Prince Charles and the expressions of Norma Desmond) is a fascinating
fish-out-of-water character whose treatment by our girl is the real
meat of the show in the closing 15 minutes. I could well imagine a
play just about them.

Stripped benefits throughout from the pace and panache with
which Chalmers attacks it. The play may not give us the Full Monty
but the performance is the Real McCoy.