LipService Theatre are no strangers to the Lichfield Festival – I saw their play about the Brontes, Withering Looks some years ago – and here they’ve gone bigger and better with The Picture of Doreen Gray.
Currently celebrating their 30th anniversary, they’ve won loads of awards for comedy including the Critics Award for comedy at Edinburgh twice, and this latest production turns out to be a great way to have a birthday party for both the company and their fans alike.
The Picture of Doreen Grey didn’t seem to have much in common with Wilde’s tale of a Faustian pact but that didn’t matter because LipService merely use it as an excuse for a glorious romp through modern life as she is lived.
Artistic directors Maggie Fox and Sue Ryding (in the absence of a programme I’m not sure which is which) have created a laugh-a-line comedy about a woman tv presenter who’s dropped from her own show because of her age and swaps places with a picture of her younger self to beef up her career.
The result is a helter-skelter rush through a bewilderingly speedy succession of scenes that mixed amphibian rescuers with school reunions. There’s plenty of physical comedy and a general invitation to go along with the preposterous so aiding a general suspension of disbelief that was embraced happily by a warmly welcoming audience.
Perfect Festival fare, a no holds barred comedy with some sharp things to say about the place of women in the media.
