All The Single Ladies is rising comedy writer Abigail Burdess’ first play and despite some decent laughs it shows.
The premise is intriguing as three single women living very different lives use monologues to explain how they use the Internet to find love, comfort or – as posh fifty-something Liz puts it – cock.
Liz has been married seven times and is simply looking for a good time, as she recounts the losers she meets on line, and we follow her successful pursuit of Hollywood star Gabriel Byrne before she dumps him.
Alison is the wife of a dead soldier struggling with the aftermath and being single for the first time since she was 14. Orla is a forty-something singleton trapped in a corrosive relationship with her flatmate.
Burdess deftly works up her characters in act one and their different relationships with the web is key to producing the occasional belly laugh from a mainly female audience. The quantity and quality of the gags picks up in act two as does the crudity which is actually no bad thing as it is at least honest. There is a really funny sequence where the cast do a clever routine to Beyonce’s ‘Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)’.
Leslie Ash as Liz hasn’t been on stage for years and at times it is evident, but she gamely keeps going.
Brooke Kinsella bravely takes on a Northern accent which is certainly much more consistent than Anne Hathaway’s efforts in One Day. The former Eastender shows good comedy chops, but is strongest capturing Alison’s utter bewilderment at being alone after her idolised husband dies like a ‘pillock’.
But the real star of the show is Irish comedienne Tara Flynn who has great fun as the frustrated Orla turning the tables on the loathsome Simon through a series of web alter egos. This is by far the best written role, and the likeable Flynn grabs it with great gusto and skill.
The real flaw in this debut is the failure to properly tie up the three stories in any sort of satisfactory or logical way so it might as well be an one woman show.
But this is a good hearted show with plenty of laughs, and sage observations on the problems facing single women, which with some tweaks could become a regular on the touring circuit.
* All The Single Ladies is at Leeds City Varieties until Feb 15. Tickets 0113 243 0808.
I saw the same show last night, and I would posit that the engaging Tara Flynn saved the day, and that you’re right in saying that this play would have been all the better if it were a monologue focusing on Orla. Leslie Ash (God bless) was almost excruciatingly unsure of herself, to the point where I was getting a bit concerned. Brooke Kinsella was competent and endearing. The whole thing felt a bit ‘so near and yet so far’ with extemely funny moments (dogging vehicle make and model snobbery) and extremely embarrasing fluffs where the play was at risk of juddering to a halt . Shame.