In 1999, a group of friends from the Women’s Institute in Rylstone, North Yorkshire set about looking for a fun way to raise money to honour the memory of the husband of one of their members who had died from non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The story of their nude calendar and the money they raised rapidly became the stuff of legend, and Juliette Towhidi and Tim Firth turned it into a feature film, which won the hearts of the nation.
In a way, Calendar Girls is the female answer to The Full Monty, in that it is an unlikely a tale of a group of friends who bare more than their souls in a bid to raise cash and honour friendship, and just like its masculine counterpart, the film has gone on to make a musical and, along the way, a stage play.
The stage version of Calendar Girls is arguably more emotionally charged than the movie, and especially when performed as it is this week at Chester Little Theatre in the intimacy of a small auditorium, the camaraderie and the facing of their fears feels very real and immediate.
Co-directors Andy Fox-Hutchings and Kell Cowley have put together a splendid cast of actors (rather too numerous to list entirely here) all of whom really do put their heart and soul into the enterprise. The story has a complex rollercoaster ride of emotions beneath its overall dramatic arc, and it is noticeable that in some of its most highly charged scenes there are genuine tears rolling down cheeks, both onstage and in the audience.
It is a sharply written narrative that delivers plenty of laugh-out-loud moments which are often juxtaposed with passionate speeches and scenes of potent poignancy.
Central to the story is the friendship between Annie and Chris, played here by Katie Prescott and Paula Condliffe-Hughes. It is the loss of Annie’s husband that sparks Chris into hatching the idea for the calendar. The twists and turns that follow threaten to drive a wedge between them, and there are some particularly powerful soliloquies from them both. The breaking down of barriers and the strengthening of bonds between them and their friends wins the day eventually, however, and by the closing scene surrounded by fields of sunflowers we really do feel that we have been on quite a journey with them all.
Amongst the strong cast, special mention must go to Alison Mclellan, who has some of the best one-liners in the script and delivers them with gloriously dry wit.
The performance mirrors the story itself, growing in strength and confidence from its nervous and hesitant opening to the tremendously clever calendar shoot that closes Act I. It is no mean feat to make this scene work smoothly in such an intimate space, and it is probably both fair and apposite to say that they really do pull it off with great aplomb. When the curtain comes down for the interval there is a strong sense of a group of friends who have bonded under pressure.
Act II presents a shift of emotional temperature, as the success of the calendar affects different members of the group in different ways, and this is where we see the power of true friendship shining through the pain.
Somehow there is a feeling that the team spirit shown in the story is mirrored amongst the cast and crew in this production, so it makes a fitting way to bring the company’s current season to a close. Promising to play to packed houses for the full week of performances, this is a good opportunity to thank CLT for another year of varied storytelling, and we look forward to the new season which begins in September, with a sequel to last autumn’s ‘Allo! ‘Allo!, commencing on 12th September.
Members of the cast of Calendar Girls - Picture by Stephen Cain Photography
This review was originally written for publication by Good News Liverpool
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