Little Women – Lyric Theatre – Review
by Cathy Brown

Dates: Sat 3 Feb—Sat 2 Mar 2024

Photo Credit – Carrie Davenport

A Lyric Theatre Production of Little Women by Louise May Alcott, adapted by Anne-Marie Casey and presented by arrangement with Lee Dean.

The Lyric Theatre Belfast has opened its new season with a solid production of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. This is a classic retelling of the beloved novel, celebrating the story in a manner which is true to the text. The period drama remains intact, contemporary standards are not brought to bear and the nostalgia factor is sensibly indulged.

The play opens in the March household in New England during the American Civil War where Abigail ‘Marmee’ March and her four daughters face a sparse Christmas without their father, who is serving as an Army Chaplain. The four girls have very distinct personalities. Eldest, Meg (Ruby Campbell), is a beauty who hopes to make a good marriage for the benefit of her family. Beth (Maura Bird) is quiet and sensitive, happy at home, surrounded by family with no plans for her future. Youngest and most indulged is Amy (Tara Cush), an artist who wants to be a famous painter and enjoy the good things in life. Least conventional is Jo (Marty Breen), who eschews romance, is an avowed tomboy and yearns to make a living from the only thing that makes her happy – her writing. When a young wealthy heir called Laurie (Cillian Lenaghan) moves in next door along with his tutor John (Sean Blaney), his emotional life becomes entwined with the March sisters.

This is a production of gentle humour and dependable emotion. Marty Breen, as the most complex March sister, is the beating heart of the story, using skill and considerable stage presence to capture both Jo’s strength and vulnerability. As Alcott’s alter ego, Breen encapsulates that elusive sweet spot that makes her Jo perennially relatable with a nod to the contemporary. Ruby Campbell is a winning presence as Meg, infusing her character’s vanity with a thoughtful stoicism. As Amy, Tara Cush convinces as both tantrum-fuelled pre-teen and monied new society bride and has some of the best comic moments of the show.

Maura Bird’s Beth possesses a quiet warmth and her final scene with her sister Jo is movingly intimate. Cillian Lenaghan is a charming Laurie and he and Breen share a delightful chemistry. Jo Donnelly displays a quiet dignity as Marmee, even if her character, who is overly fond of aphorism, feels less convincing. Allison Harding successfully balances the more outlandish aspects of the formidable Aunt Marge, while Sean Blaney and Ash Rizi as the other suitors bring a grounded amiability to proceedings.

Tracey Lindsay’s two-storey set retains a cosy care-worn charm, while Sarah Jane Shiels uses lighting to effectively chart the passing of time outside the family home. Complementing this, Gillian Lennox signals the growth of the sister’s fortunes and personalities through her understated yet historically on-point costuming.

Under Emily Foran’s reliable direction, Anne-Marie Casey’s adaptation hits all the big moments of the book, but the bringing together of Little Women and Good Wives makes for a long run time and where the first half occasionally feels sluggish, the second half races to tie up loose ends. While the production makes no concessions to the modern taste for bringing classic texts up to date, Foran and Casey are smart enough to depict Jo’s burgeoning creativity as arising not from an escape to independent life in New York, but from her return to the family home. There is romance galore in the final scenes, but it is clear to see that Jo’s happy ending comes not just from finding love, but from seeing her literary dreams realised.

This Little Women may feel like something of an old-fashioned entertainment, but the Lyric Theatre production has lent into the nostalgia of the piece, which will delight fans of the novel.

This is a well-presented, highly respectful interpretation of a classic tale, whose strength lies in the performances, a wonderful cast dynamic and the natural power of the storytelling, all of which make it incredibly hard to resist.