The Killing of Sister George

Review

Frank Marcus’s 1965 play about a popular character in a radio serial being killed off makes more than a few gentle digs at The Archers, yet at the same time it manages to be strangely prophetic.

As it depicts a country (and its broadcasters) wrestling with the seismic shift in values that was the 1960s, it brings to mind the more recent obsession with sensationalism that has plagued TV soaps such as Emmerdale and Eastenders.

Director Sally Evans has rightly placed emphasis on the characters in HumDrum’s production and the cast give consistently believable performances. Jeanette Broad is suitably grotesque as the actress who has forgotten where her character ends and the person begins. She is as changeable as the weather – which in this play is usually a tempest. Elspeth Holm has a very easy manner as her partner ‘Childie’ yet she doesn’t do enough to underline the childishness of the character, which weakens the climactic revelation.

Similarly, the dynamic of this central relationship needs more brutality: Alice’s despicable treatment at the hands of ‘George’ screams out parallels with the Porters in Look Back In Anger, but the darker depths are not reached here.

Sheila Elsdon gives the BBC executive and air of calm authority, while Lin Warner plays the inexplicable role of Madame Xenia just the right side of caricature.

Nathan Chapman