'When We Were Women' Orange Tree Theatre ****

What happens when a hellish warzone environment empowers a naval officer to become besotted with a local girl and with this he sweeps her off her feet, yet when the person is still married to another woman, could this cause friction with the developing feelings? The Orange Tree Theatre’s production of Sharman Macdonald’s 1988 play, ‘When We Were Women’ touches on the secrets and lies of a navy officer in an awe-inspiring approach, additionally, the performances were miraculously characterised.

‘When We Were Women’ is set in Glasgow from 1943-1944 where we are introduced to free-spirited young teen, Isla who is longing to escape the clutches of her God-fearing mother, Maggie and intoxicating father, Alec (Steve Nicolson). Their marriage is consistently fraught due to the Alec’s drinking habits and their poor financial circumstances. So when Isla come into contact with navy officer, Mackenzie there seems that he could be a reason for her to leave her mother’s controlling rules and the two truly fall in love for one another. But she has sexual intercourse with him and becomes expectant and as such because gossip could commence, Maggie states that they must get married as to not arouse suspicion. Mackenzie ventures off to purchase an engagement and wedding ring and a plan for a quick wedding is put into action. However, Maggie has been hiding the fact that their bills are piling up from her husband, Alec and with the wedding to pay for she cannot pay the bills that they have. Throughout the performance, Mackenzie has been seeing glimpses of a woman called Cath (Sarah Jayne-Butler) who appears as a gust at his wedding and we soon learn that Cath is in fact Mackenzie’s wife, who he has not even divorced, so his and Isla’s marriage is a monogamous one. Understandably, Isla is furious with Mackenzie’s lies as demands that he must not see her or speak to her ever again. Due to the fact that Isla is pregnant, her parents are concerned that people will talk about their bad parenting and plead with Isla to abort the baby. Isla doesn’t want to do this and states that she won’t give up her baby for anyone. Revelations spiral out of control when Alec learns of Maggie’s secrets and lies and launches a vicious attack of Maggie as she’s not told him the truth. At the finale, Mackenzie who is about to set sail again years to see Isla become he departs but as Isla is still angry she declines to meet him even though he has written a love note. Macdonald’s narrative is fantastic as we can see how a young teenage girl who hungers for freedom turns into utter travesty as she finds a man who she loves is a bigamist and with her pregnancy it will attract a lot of stigma attached to it. 

One found the performances by the company of, ‘When We Were Women’ to be tremendous through boundless voice and movement work. Abigail Lawrie is sublime as youngster, Isla; primarily at the point before she gets married there’s a moving moment between her and father Alec as you can see her moving from childhood to adulthood within seconds, also you can see the distraught on her face flourish when she realises her marriage is a sham. Mark Edel-Hunt is wonderful as adulterer, Mackenzie; exclusively how the images of Cath makes him extremely anxious and worried as the skeletons in the closet with come out to wreak havoc with his happiness to Isla will be destroyed if this is discovered. Lorraine Pilkington is first-rate as Isla’s overbearing mother, Maggie; mainly when we see her protecting her husband’s mental state due to the pugnacious financial situations shows how decent she can be at times and when she explains for her daughter’s child to be terminated is quite appropriate to the time period.  

Eleanor Rhode’s direction is remarkable here as she has produced a performance that makes you craving for more because of the intensity of Isla’s young life twisting into a downward spiral, plus the staging of the Orange Tree Theatre’s in-the-round configuration works really well here. Moreover, with Tom Jackson-Greaves’ choreography in the wedding dance sequence was transfixing to see and it’s well executed too.  James Turner’s design is impeccable as the cracks and the lights streaming across the floor shows that there are cracks in each of the character’s couplings, in addition, the waterfall shower section was such a splendidly piece indeed. I must commend Mike Robertson’s lighting design and TJ Chappell’s production tech for their work as one was not expecting to see how heavenly lighting is. Overall, the experience of, ‘When We Were Women’ was an excellently creative revival and congrats to the entire company for this brilliant and convincing production.