Theatre review: Quality Street

Back in 2010 the Finborough Theatre revived Quality Street, the play that made J.M. Barrie's name, and was his most famous work before it was comprehensively overshadowed by Peter Pan. I've been waiting to see it turn up again ever since - and still find it odd that TV hasn't rediscovered it for adaptation as a Christmas special. What we do finally get is a new touring production courtesy of Laurie Sansom and Northern Broadsides. Set during the Napoleonic Wars, it's a farcical twist on Jane Austen romances as Phoebe Throssel's (Paula Lane) heart is broken when, instead of proposing like she expects, Valentine Brown (Aron Julius) announces he's joined the army. As well as the emotional blow there's a financial one, as she's recently lost half of her fortune and needed the support of a good marriage - unbeknownst to Valentine, it was his advice that led to the bad investment.

Phoebe and her sister Susan (Louisa-May Parker) turn their home on Quality Street into a private school and spend the next decade failing to teach upper-class local children Latin and Algebra. Phoebe resigns herself to being an old maid, and takes on a dowdy look to match.

This is the version of Phoebe Valentine meets when the wars end ten years later, and she's convinced he's put off by how worn down she is. When she puts her old ballgown on again to cheer herself up, Valentine walks in on her and doesn't recognise her. This begins a double life as Phoebe invents the persona of her own niece Livvy, a flighty and flirtatious girl who becomes the star of the celebratory balls, while Phoebe stays at home being the prim and proper schoolmistress.

Northern Broadsides' USP is to present classics in Northern accents, but Sansom's production adds an extra Northern connection: The biggest sign of how popular Quality Street once was is that the chocolates were named to capitalise on its success, and here we get a framing device based on verbatim interviews with people who worked at the Halifax factory where they've been made for decades. The retired workers' chatter is fun enough, but feels an unnecessary distraction from the actual play. This is especially true when these characters are brought back to do the scene changes - it just drags them out as they discuss the story so far, and feels a bit patronising to suggest the audience needs this Gogglebox commentary on what life was like for Georgian women.

The play itself is confidently dealt with though - Lane has likeable double acts both with Parker as the frustrated sisters, and with Julius as the couple who never miss a chance to sabotage their own romantic chances. Supporting them are some fun turns from Gilly Tompkins, channelling Julie Walters as the sisters' housekeeper, Alicia McKenzie and Jelani D'Aguilar as the busybody Willoughby sisters, Alice Imelda as a debutante who decides Livvy is her great rival, and Alex Moran and Jamie Smelt as Livvy's gormless suitors.

The production doesn't seem to have found enough of an audience on this leg of the tour to fill Richmond Theatre, which means this afternoon it sometimes struggled to build up the atmosphere needed to really make the comedy fly; the comic energy and timing are sometimes off, and a scene where the actors use puppets to play the unruly schoolchildren veers a bit more to the creepy than the funny. I could have done with the show not leaning so heavily on the eponymous chocolates as a theme as well and found its own identity: As well as the factory workers, we have Jessica Worrall and Lis Evans' costumes making each of the ballgowns one of the sweet wrappers (as the most popular deb at the ball, Phoebe/Livvy is of course the purple one.)

But I thought the show found its mojo more after the interval, where we have the funniest scenes as well as some moving moments: Barrie was writing when the suffragettes were still some way from their first major victories, and his sympathies for women and the limited options they had to support themselves financially underscores the period drama. While it didn't reach the heights I remembered this Quality Street still puts a smile on the audience's faces, and if the remaining stops on its tour are venues it won't feel quite as lost in, will probably continue to do so for the next few months.

Quality Street by J.M. Barrie ends today at Richmond Theatre; then continues on tour to Bolton, Leeds, York, Sheffield, Hull, Scarborough, Guildford, Keswick, Blackpool and Halifax.

Running time: 2 hours 20 minutes including interval.

Photo credit: Andrew Billington.