Shell Seekers (tour)

NOTE: The following review dates from September 2003 and an earlier tour of this production. For current casting details, see performance listings.

The Shell Seekers is an adaptation of Rosamunde Pilcher’s best-selling novel translated for the stage as a gentle and entertaining plod through the life, loves and losses of a leading artist’s daughter in the final weeks of her life.

Husband and wife novelists Terence Brady and Charlotte Bingham have again united forces (Upstairs, Downstairs; Forever Green and I Wish, I Wish to name but a few), to bravely breathe new life into the story, which has previously made an outing onto the big screen. Unfortunately some script inconsistencies cause hiccups in the gentle mingling of past and present – although on press night in Plymouth it may have been more down to the fudging of lines which should recede as the play settles into its tour.

Stephanie Cole (Tenko and Waiting for God) leads the cast from the front exuding star quality as Penelope Keeling, the artist’s daughter. She fondly remembers her Bohemian past and great romance while her three children squabble over their impending inheritance and what is best for their increasingly frail mother.

New gardener Danus (Nicholas Osmond) and young companion Antonia (Katherine Heath) increasingly remind her of a bitter sweet past in Cornwall and unknowingly help her make life-altering decisions regarding her father’s last work – the hugely valuable painting The Shell Seekers.

Karen Drury (of Brookside fame) is elegant as favourite daughter Olivia although the character remains one-dimensional throughout while Ian Shaw is laconic as Noel, the gambling and high living son. Veronica Roberts is convincing and comic in a gift of a role as Nancy.

In addition there is more than able support from Timothy Carlton, Paul Chapman, Jacqueline Clarke and Martin Wimbush.

Simon Higlett‘s simple and effective sets transport us from past to present, from the Cornish coast to busy London and back to the Cotswolds with an annoying series of push ’em on and push ’em off backdrops and props which again may become more slick as time progresses.

The Shell Seekers is, as it only ever could be in the allotted time, a précis of a novel. There is no time to properly develop the characters or their relationship with Penelope and that leaves an unsatisfactory feel as each character ultimately gets what they deserve.

– Karen Bussell (reviewed at Theatre Royal, Plymouth)