Sex, passion and profanity. For anyone familiar with Pedro Almodóvar’s films these are the brash themes that spring to mind.
So I was braced for a somewhat risqué night before going to see the musical adaptation of his cult 1988 film Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown at the Playhouse Theatre.
Although the smut was toned down in this second stage adaptation, after a brief Broadway stint, the night still offered plenty of frenetic energy as the story of gun-wielding, ledge-jumping abandoned women was brought to life.
Green Wing’s Tamsin Grieg is wonderful in the lead role of Pepa, a voiceover artist who is left bordering on insanity after her partner Ivan (Jérôme Pradon) suddenly leaves her via an abrupt answer phone message.
Her ability to slip from despair to perfectly-timed comedy makes her a natural if somewhat understated leading lady who effortlessly portrays a woman in crisis.
As the plot unravels the action quickly turns into farce as the volatile characters are left deserted and bereft by their various love interests.
The dark comedy of the play draws a couple of wry laughs from the audience, for instance when erratic model Candela (Anna Skellern), is dumped by a man who turns out to be a Shi’ite terrorist intent on blowing up a building.
Haydn Gwynne is stunning as gun-toting, demented Lucia – jilted wife of Ivan – and is superb in showcasing the manic feelings of love, hatred, despair and longing that are at the centre of the drama.
For a play that centres on female abandonment and loneliness it is thankfully upbeat, with Latin-tinged music performed by a live band and pink and orange lighting warming what could be a too depressing subject.
The brilliance of the piece is that the women’s insanity isn’t hidden away – the audience is invited to revel in the lunacies and frantic activities on stage.
In the opening sequence of the play the word ‘MAD’ is written on a blackboard by a female matador before, with a sardonic grin at the audience, she completes the word ‘MADRID’, where the play is set.
The acerbic humour woven throughout the performance reflects the desperation, and the everyday mundanities of the characters, at one point Pepa pours Valium into her homemade gazpacho.
Although well executed with competent direction from Bartlett Sher, the first act feels a little meandering at times, but the second act is much more fluid.
The singing for the most part is skilled, especially from Grieg considering she had never sung on stage before, although there were some notes she failed to hit.
As is typical with Almodóvar, women are the driving narrative, with themes of female emancipation and metamorphosis in the chaos of life.
Almodóvar himself explained his recurrent motif of women.
He said: “When I was a child I was surrounded by women. They were my formation. They were very strong – they were the women that saved the country from civil war.”
Despite losing their grasp on sanity the woman carry a message of strength and transformation, of the seed of hope and life beyond the chaos.
If this transformation has to be achieved via being on the brink of a breakdown, so be it.
As director Bartlett Sher quipped: “Sometimes a little crazy can be good.”
Picture of Tamsin Grieg with blender courtesy of Johan Persson, with thanks
All other images courtesy of Alasdair Muir, with thanks
