The Lady from Dubuque

Synopsis

A party at which three couples have been playing 20 Questions ends when Jo, the hostess who is dying of cancer, can no longer bear her pain. Afterwards, a mysterious woman, the "lady from Dubuque", who may be the mother of the hostess, arrives and raises more difficult questions.

Our Review:

21 March 2007

Who was that strange lady I saw you with last night? That was no eyesore, that was Maggie Smith; or, that was no lady, that was my mother; or, that was no ordinary lady, that was the lady from Dubuque.

Edward Albee’s bleak, sardonic comedy, which closed after a dozen performances on Broadway in 1980, is a bold choice of play in the West End even after all these years, and even with Dame Maggie as the chief attraction. For it is a spiky comedy about death written, almost like music, for eight voices; you might sub-title the piece “the arch Dubuque octet.”

Anthony Page’s brilliantly cast, superbly acted production – Dame Maggie does not take a solo call, but leads the line at the end – also removes a potentially intimidating air of mystery by playing the piece entirely for real, with no Gothic extravagance or self-consciousness.

The first act is a classic alcoholic shindig in the Albee land of Connecticut Yankees, magnificently designed (by Hildegard Bechtler)...

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Latest User Review

Gareth James - 7 June 2007:

What is this? 'Spring in London - a job creation project for 5 American actors'? 'Pre-retirement reduced working - an easy 40 minutes for Dame Maggie'? Who on earth thought this play was worth putting on? A complete waste of 100 minutes of my life....

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