Maureen Lipman Is a Genuine Joy in Allegra at the Harold Pinter

Allegra | Harold Pinter Theatre until 8 August

A national treasure delivers a stand-out comic performance in an otherwise patronising production.

Allegra stars Maureen Lipman, and it truly is brilliant to see her on stage. The publicity, quite rightly, calls her a national treasure, she’s eighty, and this show has been built as a vehicle for her, touring before a brief, well-deserved West End run.

The play is written by Peter Quilter, known for End of the Rainbow, the Judy Garland play, and Glorious!, which also starred Maureen Lipman as Florence Foster Jenkins. It comes with that pedigree. Lipman plays Allegra, a woman so full of joy that she cannot stop herself from bursting into song, at home, in the street, in shops, restaurants, and care homes. Unfortunately, this isn’t a musical, but real life, where it causes chaos. Her brother and carer must try to control her and avoid angry visits from the local policeman.

We are treated to musical numbers accompanied by rather terrible backing tracks, which the publicity refers to as “spectacular.” However, involving just four people, none of whom are particularly trained dancers, they are quite efficient, but I would not, under any circumstances, call them spectacular! They could be spectacularly something, just not that!

There are some quite desperate attempts at audience participation. At one point, the house lights are turned on the front stalls, as they are supposed to be the residents of a care home where Allegra is performing. There is a somewhat forced attempt at encouraging an audience singalong, but unfortunately, the chosen song, “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” is unlikely to be familiar to an English audience. Why Allegra decides to sing this really baffles me!

Maureen Lipman is an experienced and talented actress and performer, although her singing here isn’t particularly strong. I recall seeing her many years ago in Wonderful Town, and she appears to be channelling her Florence Foster Jenkins singing style. The play does include some good jokes, such as: “Some people do cocaine, I do cabaret. It’s funny, isn’t it, that it’s the cabaret that gets up people’s noses!” She delivers this with some aplomb.

She is supported by John Middleton as Ronan, her brother, who never feels quite at ease in his role. Elizabeth Bower as Anna, her carer, is far more effective in creating a rounded and sympathetic character. The cast is completed by Bailey Patrick as Officer Rogers who, while enthusiastically committing to his role, can’t really rise above the sitcom level of the script.

Unfortunately, I found the play patronising and unbelievable, and it made me increasingly annoyed. This is the stage version of what I call the “Hollywoodization of mental illness.” It presents ageing and the onset of dementia as something quite amusing that should be celebrated and embraced, and the state’s heavy-handed response to it never once felt believable to me. I found it patronising, and it goes nowhere near the reality of what something like this would actually be.

With the over-amplification of the dialogue, this ended up feeling more like a sitcom or a play one might find in a seaside resort as part of a summer season. I suspect this was created primarily as a vehicle for Lipman, and in that case, I’m afraid to use a phrase from the motor trade: it is a “cut and shut job.”

So, if you want to see Maureen Lipman in a comedy on stage, and if you’re not troubled by the reality of things the way I was, you are likely to have a good time.

Allegra brings Maureen Lipman back to the West End and at eighty, she’s a genuine joy to watch and can time a joke better than almost anyone. But I found the show’s treatment of ageing and mental illness patronising and unbelievable, however good the intentions.

Go for Lipman, not for the play. At eighty she remains one of the sharpest comic performers London has, and watching her work a middling script is still an education in timing. EyeOnLondon would rather see her in something that trusts its audience as much as she trusts herself.

For more London arts and culture, visit EyeOnLondon.

Image Credit | Marc Brenner]

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