Three Women in an Ice Cream Cone

Three Women in an Ice Cream Cone, the first play by Scottish singer/song writer Elizabeth Fotheringham and directed by award winning director Nadia Tass is set mainly in an Italian café/shop in London. It revolves around the proprietor Gino and the three women in his life who daily visit the ‘Cone shop’. The three women are as different as the gelati Gino sells: Alice (Nathalie Pownall), the flirt who works at the hair salon opposite, Grace (Charlotte Newton John]) the blond seamstress who is in love with Gino and Linda (Barbara Drennan) the older woman, a hardworking teacher who lives alone.

We are introduced to Gino (Jason Nicoli) posturing and preening alone in the café. Nicoli is a great performer and oozes charm. As Gino he hams up the stereotypical Italian to great comic effect. He works particularly well with his brother Luigi (Jai Armstrong) and their rendition of ‘That’s Amore’ is one of the highlights of the night. There is also postman (Felix Pring, as well as dropping off Alice’s parcels at the café, brings in news and gossip. He is a minor character but gets some of the biggest laughs especially with his confusion when Gino bids him ‘arivaderchi’ and he can only just about muster ‘ta ra’.

Designer Kimberly Meikle resisted flashing the period pieces instead opting for a more authentic feel. The net curtain, jukebox and essential espresso maker transport us to 50's London. But the short scenes of the play do not flow together very well and numerous unnecessary set changes are clunky and distracting.

Writer Fotheringham’s characters are all very 2D and the three women especially are played out like a pastiche of retro films. Grace, clearly a nod to the Hitchcock blond is independent and dignified; Alice, Rizzo from Grease is overtly sexual and out of control; and Linda who has all the clipped restraint of Celia in Brief Encounter. The cast is excellent and fine comic performances pull them over, but the play’s weaknesses are revealed when it attempts to delve a bit deeper into the darkness and violence of 50s London.

Despite the weaknesses of the play Three Women in an Ice Cream Cone is a joy to watch, a blend of Dean Martin, 50’s London and Italian stereotypes stuck into a cone.

- Joanna Ing