Photo credits: 3&4 Louise Emily Photography; 5 Edward Baxter; all others Maisie Hill
Gilroy Theatre’s 2025 Summer Repertory Season at the Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis has drawn to a close. Five plays in five weeks with a core company of actors and directors, delighting audiences and receiving great acclaim. Extracts of reviews for the season:
Persuasion by Mark Healy ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Written for six actors, this play is a tremendous achievement which keeps so much of the original intact along with the humour and heartache which Austen was so brilliant at.
Victoria Porter is hilarious as the bitter, jealous and forever ill Mary – the dance sequence at the start of the play is comedy gold.
Neil James ensures the upright Captain Wentworth is suitably dignified and wary of coming on too strong and it is those subtleties which make the tension grow in the story.
A top-notch production of a beautifully rich and faithful adaptation. It is dramatic and lyrical and, as Austen so often is – very funny.
Fallen Angels by Noel Coward ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Director, Su Gilroy, instils plenty of pace into the production without compromising on the laughs.
In the central roles of Julia and Jane, which requires the duo to deteriorate from stone-cold sobriety to outrageous drunks, Victoria Porter and Kirsty Cox have a ball. Whether it is screaming at the top of their voices with spite or bent up double with laughter it is a joy to see these two at work: the ferocity of their argument puts one very much in mind of that of Coward’s ‘Private Lives’ which would hit the stage five years later. The energy is phenomenal.
A Brief History of Women by Alan Ayckbourn ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Directed with care and finesse…. the shouting show down with Victoria Porter is wonderfully exciting. Victoria does a very good drunk and represents an example of the feistier side of women of the 1920s.
Throughout, Neil James plays Anthony Spates, from nervy youth to elderly man and he does so simply, without fuss or histrionics…. it is a carefully pitched performance.
Deathtrap by Ira Levin ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Twist follows twist, laughs and shocks come in close proximity.
Director, Su Gilroy, has gathered a fine group of performers and created plenty of humour and great tension in equal measure – the combination of the two is a heady mix and the reason for the success of the play.
The shocks when they come are given full throttle (if I can use that word!) and induce gasps and hands to the mouths from the audience. Exactly as it should be.
The central role of Bruhl is large and meaty and Neil James grabs the chance to play it with the firmest of grasps. Confident, arrogant, vulnerable and charismatic – all Bruhl’s facets are there. Super work.
Victoria Porter imbues Bruhl’s wife Myra with a feistiness which gives the character extra bite and personality and makes her storyline really strong. Both actors have a significant rapport which enhances the plot.
Strictly Murder by Brian Clemens ⭐⭐⭐
Su Gilroy builds a great atmosphere and creates plenty of tension throughout – you never know who is going to appear through the front door which puts you on edge by itself.
As this reviewer has come to expect of Gilroy Theatre, the performances are universally well presented.
Full reviews available here:
https://www.theatreplays.uk/fallen-angels-marine-theatre-lyme-regis/
https://www.theatreplays.uk/jane-austens-persuasion-adapted-by-mark-healy-marine-theatre-lyme-regis/
https://www.theatreplays.uk/strictly-murder-marine-theatre-lyme-regis/
https://www.theatreplays.uk/a-brief-history-of-women-marine-theatre-lyme-regis/
https://www.theatreplays.uk/deathtrap-marine-theatre-lyme-regis/
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