The Rise and Fall of Little Voice ★★★

By The Recs SCD 3 years ago

The Rise And Fall of Little Voice tour brings Jim Cartwright’s work back to the stage 30 years after it was first performed. The Recs reviews how it holds up.

The past is a different country and 1992, when The Rise and Fall of Little Voice by Jim Cartwright first premiered, feels a distant and different time theatrically.

The play opens with the set – designer Sara Perks’ striking cross section featuring the upstairs and downstairs of the Hoff family home – resembling a doll house. While this may immediately conjure images of childhood plaything, the proto-fairy tale that follows is altogether more grim and more Grimm.

Set in an unspecified Northern town, a mother and daughter co-exist in the same house but could not be more different. Mother Mari is a deafening, brash, booze-swigging, voracious woman who is living a life of very loud desperation. Her daughter LV is a fragile, timid, ghost of girl who has retreated from the world to the safety of her bedroom and her late father’s record collection. Seeking refuge in the music of Cilla Black, Barbra Streisand and Marilyn Monroe, she develops an extraordinary talent to mimic these iconic singers. Playing Garland’s Rain Or Shine, the lyrics ‘Happy together / Un-happy together’ underline the dysfunctional relationship between the two.

All photos © Pamela Raith Photography

When Ray Say, Mari’s latest boyfriend and small-time talent agent, hears LV’s talent for mimicry, he sees his big chance to break into the big time of showbusiness. He begins a mission to insist that Little Voice should perform in public – regardless of the consequences.

The role of LV (Little Voice) was penned especially for Jane Horrocks who was starring in Cartwright’s play Road and who warmed up by doing singing impressions of Bassey, Merman and Garland. It turbocharged her career and became a part that has cast a long shadow.

Enter Christina Bianco, an American singer, actress and impressionist (aka the triple talent threat) truly required for the role to take wing. From the moment we hear Bianco sing a cappella rendition of The Man Who Got Away during one of the house’s frequent electricity outages, it’s a goosebump moment that fills Brighton’s 214 year-old Theatre Royal.

This is but the warm-up to Little Voice’s Act 2 triumphant performance at Mr Boo’s club. Anyone who has watched Christina’s YouTube channel – that would be some 123K subscribers – would have enjoyed her peerless vocal takes on the likes of Celine Dion, Adele, Cher and Idina Menzel. But it doesn’t quite prepare you for quite how staggering good she is live. Her powerful, emotional rendition of Shirley Bassey’s This Is My Life is breathtaking. As well as being vocally on a par with the Tiger Bay diva, it truly channels all of Little Voice’s pent-up, inner hopes and lets them soar. Christina Bianco is the magical spark that transforms The Rise And Fall of Little Voice into something truly special. 

LV forms a sweet rapport with Billy, the equally introverted telephone engineer who comes to install Mari’s telephone. While it’s not a big role, Akshay Gulati impresses. He has an admirably open, unguarded quality to his acting. Handsome with an understated charm, you will that his character and LV get a happy ending. 

Ian Kelsey delivers an admirably layered performance as self-proclaimed “king of the gutter”, Ray Say. He manages a Del Boy-meet-Elvis wheeler-dealer likeability and a fine-line of comedic bewilderment before the mask drops revealing a darker side. The subtext of a small man worn down by a life of hopes dashed seeing one last chance of the big time is well played. His increasing callous manipulation of LV is reminiscent of the sob stories that were grafted around X-Factor contestant’s vulnerable dreams of stardom. 

However, it can’t be avoided that the three decade-old script becomes problematic. While the next door neighbour Sadie (played gamely by Fiona Mulvaney) may have existed as many a punchline in 1992, the character feels more like a punchbag in 2022. Relentless ‘jokes’ about her weight land particularly flatly and a vomit scene gleefully robs Sadie of what little dignity the role may have possessed. 

Perhaps most challenging is the role of Mari. Shobna Gulati, a talented actress whose roles in Victoria Wood’s Dinnerladies and in Coronation Street made her a household favourite, is given the unenviable task of mining some sympathy in a character who is unrelentingly vile. Gulati makes a determined effort to render Mari as a wrecking ball in high heels – but too often the character is savagely abusive to those around her. Calling her daughter “you rude slit” or her neighbour “Pillsbury dough” and “fat get” boxes the role into dated offensiveness. Hurt people do hurt people but we never truly understand the source of Mari’s toxicity. This is no criticism of Gulati who leans into every awful turn the script throws at her. 

Ultimately audiences will decide for themselves whether there is a place for the misogyny and sizeism threaded through the play or they will reframe the work as a period piece reflective of its time. 

The Recs marvelled at the sublime vocal genius of Christina Bianco and admired the talented cast

but was unimpressed by a problematic play – a conflicted ★★★ 3 stars

The Rise and Fall of Little Voice Tour

BRIGHTON THEATRE ROYAL BRIGHTON: until Sat 30 Apr 2022

DERBY DERBY THEATRE: Tue 3 – Sat 7 May 2022

SALISBURY SALISBURY PLAYHOUSE: Mon 9 – Sat 14 May 2022

LIVERPOOL LIVERPOOL PLAYHOUSE: Mon 16 – Sat 21 May 2022

WAKEFIELD THEATRE ROYAL WAKEFIELD: Mon 23 - Sat 28 May 2022

CREWE CREWE LYCEUM THEATRE: Mon 30 May – Sat 4 Jun 2022

SALFORD THE LOWRY: Mon 6 – Sat 11 Jun 2022

BLACKPOOL BLACKPOOL GRAND: Mon 13 – Sat 18 Jun 2022

COLCHESTER MERCURY THEATRE: Tue 21 – Sat 25 Jun 2022

RICHMOND RICHMOND THEATRE: Mon 27 Jun – Sat 2 Jul 2022

YORK YORK THEATRE ROYAL: Mon 4 – Sat 9 Jul 2022

CHELTENHAM EVERYMAN THEATRE: Mon 11 – Sat 16 July 2022

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