Review: THE DIARY OF A PROVINCIAL LADY, Bridge House Theatre

Like George Eliot before her and JK Rowling after, I guess self-styled E.M.Delafield hid her gender in order to be published - not that anyone would be in any doubt of the author's sex in the case of the most celebrated book of her considerable catalogue.

The Diary of a Provincial Lady is something of a roman à clef, a description that would probably find favour with the daughter of Count Henry Philip Ducarel de la Pasture, whose family had fled Revolutionary France. Published in 1930, it has something of PG Wodehouse’s sublime Blandings Castle stories about it - the English upper middle class moving between fading rural splendour and burgeoning metropolitan opportunities, juggling servant and money troubles and encountering a revolving menagerie of harmless eccentrics. It’s as light and frothy as those tales of Lord Emsworth and his prize pig, but that was, and perhaps is so now too, the tonic the country needs for frightening times.

In the darkening nights of darkest Penge, this loving adaptation certainly proved a delight. After a slightly unnecessary framing device that lent a meta feeling to the evening, the actors who expertly multi-role (often through a dizzying array of headgear) bicker as actors will, but we’re soon zapped to Devon, a hundred or so years ago.

The diary comes to life with writer/director, Ellie Ward, stepping into the lead role for an indisposed Becky Lumb. She makes for a winning presence as the posh mother of two children confiding her hopes and fears to her journal, whilst navigating her family and household through measles and walkouts, somehow coping with a non-communicative husband, asleep under The Times. She also scribbles stories for Time and Tide, the feminist magazine, and aspires to moving within London’s literary circles. Due to her talent, good humour and hard work, she succeeds.

(At this point, I’m always reminded of Jimmy Reid’s question to former world record holder and cabinet minister, Roger Bannister, when he addressed a mass meeting of the striking Upper Clyde Shipbuilders - “How many four minute milers in this hall, Mr Bannister?” No answer was reported from the Oxford man).

So Ms Delafield may have had opportunities denied to men and women born into a hungrier version of the 1930s, but she has a lot of fun with her creations, no doubt based on a keen and withering eye and a sophisticated comic sensibility. 

Rebecca Pickering garners plenty of laughs with Lady Boxe, the widow of the Lord of the Manor, who is given plenty of Dame Edna Everage’s passive aggression and viperous putdowns. She also plays Madamoiselle, the governess, and various ladies who lunch in London and on the Côte d'Azur.

Michael Ansley does get quite so much to do, but leads an amusing running gag as an increasingly irate bank manager requesting, demanding, imploring that the overdraft be addressed and hams up one of two cross-dressing roles in a pleasingly unconvincing style.

The diary structure makes its demands on the cast, who must switch from character to character as The Lady meets the villagers and the Londoners in winter, spring, summer and autumn, as her fortunes ebb and flow and she does, as Brits once did, cope.

Just when it needed one, a sharper edge comes into the day-to-day jottings as the Lady faces the dilemmas that an ambitious woman in the inter-wars years faced. Can she be a perfect mother, a domestic goddess and an admired and successful writer all at once? What must she give up to avoid failing in all three? The answer proves surprisingly poignant and hits harder than I expected.

In a small theatre, the intimacy supports both the claustrophobia of the country set where everyone knows everyone else’s business and the confessional nature of the diary. This production is neither the biggest nor the loudest you can catch - not even at this venue - over the next few weeks, but it’s good work, both gently amusing and rather more moving than anyone has the right to expect. At least not in Penge.     

The Diary of a Provincial Lady is at the Bridge House Theatre until 15 November

Photo images: The Provincial Lady Team