REVIEW: Curtains at the Wyndham's Theatre

Although a well known Broadway show, Curtains hasn’t had much attention in the UK. Whilst its been a favourite of drama schools and the occasional small scale production around the country we haven’t seen a fully mounted production of it, until now. Its been making its way round the country and is making a Christmas pit stop at the Wyndham’s Theatre in the centre of London's West End. 

The show is set in a theatre in Boston where a new musical production of Robin Hood is in previews with hopes to go to Broadway. The show stars a huge film star who turns out to be dreadful and is shortly killed off. The theatre is sectioned off and no one is allowed to leave the building as there is a suspected murderer amongst them. As the show tries to find rehearse its new star theres a couple more killings, a love story and a couple of show rewrites by the detective, we eventually find out who committed the crime.  

REVIEW: Curtains at the Rose Theatre in Kingston

Sometimes drama is so uncomfortable to watch that the audience laughs out loud from embarrassment or out of discomfort at the recognition of the scene in front of them and this revival of Stephen Bill's award winning play certainly touches raw nerves. As our life expectancies increase bringing physical infirmities and the risk of dementia , many families are faced with the challenge of how to care for their elderly parents and this play explores the tensions and divisions that this situation brings. Though set in the late eighties in the days before mobile phones, the situation is even more topical and relevant today although some of the language is dated. 

Ida, or Mum as she is called by most of the characters, is wheelchair bound, in pain, partially blind and barely able to recognise her own family and is played with a touching realism by the excellent Sandra Voe. It is her 86th birthday and her family have gathered to celebrate the day in her dated dilapidated sitting room. The set design by Peter McKintosh is full of detailed period furnishings and clutter, including a glimpse of the offstage kitchen and reflects the family neglect as a result of uncertainties of what to do with their mother.