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The Belle's Strategem

Southwark Playhouse, Inner London
From: Tuesday, 6th September 2011
To: Saturday, 1 October 2011

Our Review: Your Reviews:

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Synopsis

In a time when women were second-class citizens, a group of wily ladies are determined to get their own way... When, beautiful Letitia Hardy s betrothed returns from the Grand Tour convinced that English women are dull, she sets out to gain his love with an ingenious scheme to prove him wrong. Meanwhile, the jealous Sir George Touchwood arrives in town with his new wife, Lady Frances, in tow. It s not long before two of London s most rambunctious wits, Miss Ogle and Mrs Rackett, make it their mission to convert her into a lady of fashion.

Our Review:

Michael Coveney - 12 September 2011

Here’s a fine and surprising discovery: a Georgian comedy romp by Hannah Cowley not seen since the 19th century and dating from 1780, just three years after The School for Scandal.

There are elements of Sheridan in Jessica Swale’s ebullient and handsomely presented production, and a strained hint of the play whose title is alluded to, George Farquhar’s The Beaux Stratagem.

So, we have a gossip factory, older relatives stitching up younger ones, and a spritely heroine, Letitia Hardy (deliciously played by the sparkling Gina Beck) who adopts a series of radical feminist wiles and determines to stir the diffident beau she’s been betrothed to since birth, the arrogant and cynical Doricourt (Michael Lindall), newly returned from the Grand Tour, into genuine affection.

Cowley writes sharply and amusingly, though she’s no match, alas, for her brilliantly eloquent Irish masters. All the same, she handles the plot ...

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