Lipstick and Lollipops: Theatre review

By Steve Day

At one point in Lipstick and Lollipops, by Charlie Swinbourne, the lady sitting next to me reached, surreptitiously, into her handbag for a tissue and mopped a tear from her cheek. I was glad of this, it meant I felt far less silly wiping my own.

I had something in my eye of course, but the story of Isabel, a young girl facing the problems of growing up and her complicated relationship with her parents, packed an emotional punch without ever descending into melodrama. It was funny, too.

That the main character was deaf hardly seemed to matter, though the clever mix of speech and signing added poignancy and whilst I normally find it hard to follow the spoken work or BSL, in this case it didn’t matter. That is due most of all to some fine acting by a young cast, including Diana Martin, utterly convincing in the lead, and Charlotte Arrowsmith’s scene stealing Mel, a kind of deaf Vicky Pollard only funny and more interesting.

For the most part the dialogue was spare and snappy, but occasional scenes seemed to slightly betray their improvised origin and at times I wished we could get back to the point. A few moments did seem to belong in another play about deaf singles on a night out but gratifyingly the themes of the play were skilfully brought back together in some thought-provoking final scenes, where the truth of Isabel’s relationship with her mother and father was, to use an old theatrical term, bang on.

Deafinitely theatre’s aims include Correcting Misconceptions between the deaf and hearing worlds, and building bridges between the two, and much other laudable stuff, but even better than that, this was a bloody entertaining play.

Lipstick and Lollipops runs to 21 June 2008 at The Drill Hall in London.

•    The Drill Hall, Chenies Street, London, WC1E 7EX
•    Evening performances at 7.30pm
•    Matinees at 2pm on Thu 19 and Sat 21 June
•    £15 (£12 concessions) matinee tickets £10
•    Box Office: 020 7307 5060  www.drillhall.co.uk