Lettice and Lovage by Peter Shaffer

Lettice and Lovage

directed by Ian Wilson-Soppitt

Tilbourne Players touchingly chose to honour the memory of the late Dame Maggie Smith, who died about 18 months ago, with a performance of Lettice and Lovage, a work written by Peter Shaffer specifically for that incomparable acting icon. Performed in the charmingly intimate hall of the Tilford Institute, it was a delightful evening.

Lettice Douffet (brilliantly played by Sara Wilson-Soppitt) is a tour guide at a tediously boring country house, who decides to spice up her commentary to engage with visitors and make the experience memorable, despite knowing, as a historical pedant, that her imaginative musings are untrue. The owner starts to receive complaints about her historical inaccuracies so that Lottie Schoen (Jane Quicke) is sent to investigate. She summons Lettice to her London office the following day to dispense with her services. Lettice turns the interview in to another theatrical performance, comparing her sacking with the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots.

In the second Act, Lotte has put herself out to try and find a role for Lettice as a guide on boat tours on the Thames. From a tense start, the two become firm friends after inhibitions are lowered from quaffing too much of a drink Lettice has produced, based on mixing the herb lovage with some spirit. (A nice touch was that all Patrons were offered a sample to try at the end of the performance – very good it was!).

Lettice brings Lotte under her spell that every event has to be theatricised, but one reenactment goes wrong and Lettice is charged with the attempted murder of Lotte. The solicitor, Mr Bardolph (Tony Rivers) sent to represent her, has difficulty in establishing the facts on which a defence can be raised. Eventually, the story becomes clear, but not before the Solicitor is amusingly drawn in to Lettice’s acting web. Nevertheless, the truth about the accident would humiliate the respectable Lotte so that she would have to resign her job. However, she and Lettice decide that they will set up together to exploit Lotte’s architectural background and Lettice’s flair for the dramatic by giving tours to the ugliest fifty new buildings in London!

The play is dominated by the two leading characters, but a nod of appreciation for Viv Raeside’s charming vignette as Lotte’s mousy secretary, and also Tony Rivers’ sympathetic approach to unlocking the denoument. Sara and Jane each brought out the best of their lead roles with a real sensitivity for their different characters. In a work that is full of literary and historic allusion, they kept the pace with the lightness of touch and deft movement that the work needs, not to be pedestrian and wordy. It was a tour de force which Maggie Smith would have appreciated.

Of course, to the Director, Ian Wilson-Soppitt, congratulations for taking on a risky project and emerging triumphant! Well done, Tilbourne Players!

Martyn Gowar