'Stevie' Hampstead Theatre **

Some theatres normally produce unblemished productions where the subjects are particularly stimulating, but there are occasions when a performance in that specific venue is exceedingly dull and un-compelling. The Hampstead Theatre’s current production of Hugh Whitemore’s, ‘Stevie’ did not live up to the high expectations that I’d expect from this space, moreover, the performances lacked rigour.

‘Stevie’, which was presented as part of last year’s Chichester Festival Theatre’s season carries us in a certain point of the life of writer and poet, Stevie Smith where she is at present living with her Aunt in Palmers Green, London. At the moment, she is in the process of writing a piece of poetry that will soon make her monumentally famous, as well as, her employment status is not what she desires as she regularly commutes to and from her monotonous job as a secretary at a publishing company.  Stevie Smith’s childhood was not exactly the best as she became infect with tuberculosis, and this has aided some of the content within her poetry. Her Aunt, an eccentric and funny woman does not value her nieces work as she doesn’t understand the meaning behind them.  Additionally, she has a huge craving to Battenberg cake and cups of tea, however, the relationship between Stevie and Aunt is quite strong as her Aunt is like her adoptive mother. When her Aunt requires urgent care and assistance as she becomes forgetful and incapable of retaining her independence, Stevie decides to resign from the publishing company and take on the responsibility of full-time career whist continuing to write her poetry. Stevie does not want to be married with a husband as she thinks she will be incompetent of being a doting wife to somebody, and over the course of the show, men come and go in her life and when she’s life her Aunt’s house in her will, there is a sense of relaxation when she is on her own she writes her poetry at all periods of the day. When she learns of her depression, her slight vulnerability drives her into a state of anguish and she commits suicide and it’s sad to know that she’ll never learn of how famous she became. Whitehouse’s narrative is incredibly sluggish as the pace and flow of a play about Stevie Smith’s life was not that absorbing and I cannot fathom why he wrote a play about the poet in question.

One found the performances by the company of, ‘Stevie’ were somewhat diverting as they slightly save this dwindling play where the dialogue is not that enthralling. Zoe Wannermaker is to some degree tremendous as central character, Stevie; chiefly when you see how the life of a writer can be enormously tough to obtain some recognition and position within the art form, and I know how that feels. Lynda Baron is fairly whimsical as Stevie’s quirky Aunt; mainly within the comic elements when she becomes confused by what is physically going on and her love for cups of tea and slices of cake reminds you of an aunt you’d spend afternoon tea with. Chris Larkin is satisfactory as the Narrator/Man; exclusively when he endeavours to piece all scenes together to show how Stevie Smith’s life had been a mixture of highs and lows, but on the whole a lot of low points.

Christopher Morahan’s direction is disappointing here as he has not interconnected the excitement that there should have been infused within the show and the representation of Stevie Smith’s depression was not thoroughly mentioned and her childhood traumas were missing here. Simon Higlett’s designs were pretty impressive as were are transported to the life of writer and poet Stevie Smith who found fame after her death, furthermore, the attention to detail of the plush Palmers Green house was nice to see. Overall, the experience of, ‘Stevie’ was vastly boring and I could have easily left after the first act.