A fine play in a fine production

This odd-titled play is difficult to categorise. We are given wicked satire, broad comedy, finely-tuned pathos and high drama. In the best sense -- no mawkishness here! All this adds up to a cracking piece, beautifully crafted by the writer Charlotte Jones, who hails from Bolton where the play is set. Like that other great Lancastrian writer Mike Leigh, she has a wonderful eye and ear for social nuance and middle class behaviour.

The action takes place in the living room of Josie, an aged dominatrix who's tired of her profession. She also has problems with her obsessive and Irish cleaning woman Martha, her younger daughter Brenda-Marie, and, in fact life in general.

But it is her fortieth birthday, and one of her clients, Lionel, has a surprise for her... From there on, things move rapidly and dazzlingly onwards with a host of twists and turns -- and some unexpected arrivals. The ending, which you must go and see for yourself, is both a dramatic and visual coup de théâtre.

Martha, Josie and the Chinese Elvis marks John Lloyd Fillingham’s directorial débût at The Dukes, and he has got off to a great start. I hope we will see more of his work here. Paul Kondras’ stylish and well laid out set allows ample scope for some beautifully designed and well thought-through staging with some fine gestures and wonderful body language. Even the pauses, especially in the songs, are used to focus the dramatic tension.

The choice of actors for the cast of six -- some familiar faces to Dukes’ audiences, some newcomers – was excellently judged. Lucy Atkinson made a wonderfully world-weary Louise, David Ericsson (Sgt.Match in What the Butler Saw) a subtly nuanced and lonely Lionel, and Yvonne O’Grady was a redoubtable Martha.

A newcomer to Lancaster, Yo Santhaveesuk was simply wonderful as the eponymous Elvis -- and he has a fine voice to boot. Kate Webster and Gillian Wright played Brenda-Marie and Josie Botting respectively with fine control and great dignity. And, like the rest of the cast, with goodly measures of fun and wit.

On the technical side sound, light and effects were subtle, bold and dramatic, following the demands of the text and Lloyd Fillingham’s fecund imagination.

In short, this production is another feather in the cap for The Dukes, and makes a welcome and highly entertaining diversion for these cold February evenings.

Copyright © 5 Febuary 2006 Michael Nunn

• For an interview with Charlotte Jones, click here