Playwright Laurence Clark was inspired to write his new play ‘Cured’ by his own experience of a trip to Lourdes as a teenager. He has incorporated into it a lot of stories told to him by others among the countless thousands of disabled people who are taken to the sanctuary there. Not least of these stories is one his wife told him about the confusion caused during her own visit, when her only occasional need for a wheelchair led people to think she had experienced a miracle.
As the play opens we meet Connor (Reese Pantry), who is attending a routine benefit assessment when he meets Rose (Maisy Gordon), a fellow wheelchair user who he immediately takes a liking to. Rose is not altogether impressed by Connor’s clumsy chat up lines, and gives him a cold shoulder, but he is not that easy to shake off.
In the next scene we find Rose preparing to set off on a pilgrimage to Lourdes arranged by a local charity, mostly to give moral support to her friend Helen (Sophie Adzoa-Moore). Here we meet the indomitable Sister Mary and the young Father Luke (Pauline Daniels and Oliver Mawdsley), and Callum (Stephen Smith-Taylor) who is as camp as Eurovision and about ten times as much fun.
Just as the minibus is getting ready to board, along comes Connor, who has sweet-talked his way onto the trip with the intention of pursuing Rose, by the slightly dodgy expedient of convincing Father Luke that he is Catholic.
The play follows the exploits of our intrepid band of pilgrims, as they head to France and back, and although the healing waters may be the focus of the journey for Helen and Sister Mary, the others all have their own hidden agendas. Rose is hoping for a bit of a lark and some French plonk, and Callum is looking to hook up with a boyfriend he met on a previous trip, whilst Father Luke, who took the cloth to help him forget a failed romance, turns out to have his sights set on a reconciliation with Rose.
Cured is co-produced with Birds of Paradise, a disability-led theatre company from Scotland, who have brought their expertise to the production in many ways, including integrated signing and audio description into the text and narrative, which makes the work accessible both on and off stage.
Acting as narrator is God, played by JulieMac, and her omnipresence not only affords a nifty way of incorporating the audio description for each scene, but offers all manner of humorous possibilities for questioning just exactly how accurately the word of God has been recorded in the Bible, and quite how literally God wants it to be read. This is a point at which to mention that some may find parts of the play a tad irreverent, but it is all done in good humour. God’s right hand woman (at her left hand) is Saint Bernadette, played by Naomi Gray, who spends much of her time like an icon in a niche delivering the BSL interpretation of the dialogue, but who occasionally enters into the main action, particularly in a couple of miraculous apparitions with the help of Doug Kuhrt’s lighting.
The text is sharply comic, with innuendo and spicy language worthy of a carry-on script, and the cast mine it well for laughs. The scene-stealer in every appearance he makes, however, is Smith-Taylor, who has absolute crack-shot timing, with added humour from the deadpan delivery of his saucy lines via a voice synthesiser.
At the heart of the story is a strong message about attitudes. From the recently disabled Helen, who longs to rediscover her old self, to lifelong wheelchair user Rose who wishes everyone else was as happy with her state of being as she is herself, we are challenged to ask ourselves just exactly who it is who needs to be cured of what. Just because someone’s ability may be different than ours, is it necessarily something that we should hope them to be ‘cured’ of?
Cured is a comedy that is raucously funny in places, but it is steeped in a generosity of spirit and a lot of love. Beyond and besides the humour, all the performances are heartfelt, and it is easy to relate to and empathise with each and every character in Clark’s story, and Robert Softley Gale directs with gentle energy and a steady pulse.
Cured plays at the Royal Court until 6th June, after which it will transfer to Coventry’s Belgrade Theatre and then Hull Truck, during June. Dates, booking information and a series of accessibility information and guidance are available here.
Star rating: 4 stars
Production images by AB Photography
Maisy Gordon, Sophia Adzoa-Moore and Pauline Daniels and Naomi Gray
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| Reese Pantry and Maisy Gordon |
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| Maisy Gordon, Naomi Gray and Stephen Smith-Taylor |
This review was originally written for publication by Good News Liverpool
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