Ladies in Lavender

By Shaun McKenna, based on the story by William J. Locke and the screenplay by Charles Dance. Castle Hill Players. The Pavilion Theatre, Castle Hill. September 22 – October 14, 2017.

Director Meredith Jacobs and her design team have lovingly converted the stage of the Pavilion Theatre to a seaside cottage in Cornwall in 1937. Family photographs hang from brown picture rails. A mantle clock sits on the shelf above the fireplace. Two easy chairs with crocheted antimacassars are turned to face the sea.

From them, the ageing Widdington sisters, Janet and Ursula, look over a carefully tended garden to the rocky shore below, where, after a stormy night, they find a young man near to death. He is Andrea Marowski, a violinist from Poland, who was hoping to make his fortune in America.  They take him in, nurse him back to health and become increasingly attached to him – Ursula especially.

Based on a story by William J. Locke, the 2004 screenplay of Ladies in Lavender was written by Charles Dance. In adapting it for the stage, playwright Shaun McKenna has lovingly retained the evocative poignancy of the story and its heart-warming characters. With original music (Joshua McNulty), stylish period costumes . . . .

Read the full review in Stage Whispers magazine, here.

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