★★★★ Next Door’s Baby
I don’t normally give my conclusion about a show in the first line
of my review but Next Door’s Baby – currently playing at Chiswick’s Theatre at
the Tabard - is an irresistible gem of a production.
With a book by Bernie Gaughan and music and lyrics by Matthew
Strachan, Next Door’s Baby is a dose of smart storytelling and an intelligent,
cohesive and original score.
Unashamedly quoting the marketing blurb, Next Door’s Baby is set
in ‘1950’s Dublin and two families living in adjoining terraced houses become
locked in a bitter matriarchal feud about a Bonny Baby competition
run by the local newspaper.
‘Mrs O’Brien is widowed, hard-up, but ferociously proud of her
five children; Dickie, Orla, Sheila, Larry and little Conor, the baby who will put their name in lights. She is icily
polite to ‘her next door’,
Mrs Hennessy, whose lifestyle is one of ease.
‘Against a traditionally Irish backdrop, where respectability is
all and you judge a woman by the dazzling whiteness of her net curtains, each
family nurses a secret; one that could unite them or tear them apart. It’s only
on the eve of the Bonny Baby final that we
discover their fate. ‘
The strength of this production is, without a doubt, the
wonderfully talented ensemble - Jackie Pulford, Abigail Williams, Amber Deasy,
Shaylan Gibson, Ben Hannigan, Logan McQuillan, Hayley-Jo Murphy & Sam
Woodhams.
Jackie Pulford and Amber Deasy explore the nuance of their
mother/daughter relationship with consistency, tension and ultimately strength,
Ben Hannigan as Dickie sings with such force as to take your breath away and
Logan McQuillan as Larry and Hayley-Jo Murphy as Sheila are scene-stealing
children of the indomitable Mrs O’Brien. This is a company who give knockout performances
throughout and should all be much admired and applauded – bravo!
Directed with pace, sympathy, compassion and humour by Keith Strachan
and musical direction by Beth Jerem, Next Door’s Baby is a production by Simon
Reilly and Sarah Reilly for Take Note Theatre.
Next Door’s Baby runs until 27 May 2023
Theatre at the Tabard, 2 Bath Road, London W4 1LW and more
information can be found at https://tabard.org.uk/how-to-find-us/
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