Review: MY BRILLIANT DIVORCE starring Kate Normington at Theatre On The Bay
On stage at Theatre on the Bay until 16 November
MY BRILLIANT DIVORCE - written by Geraldine Aron - is a comical look at the ups, downs and mad choices that can happen when the apple cart is upset by one spouse leaving the other. It feels like a marathon event to jump into this one-woman show, and performer Kate Normington is more than up to the comedic task in the current production running at Theatre on the Bay.
At the start of the play, you meet the character Angela and her pet dog (hilariously portrayed by a stuffed toy). Angela has just been told by her husband of several decades that he is leaving her for his girlfriend. Poor Angela is left alone, completely stunned and unsure what to do next. At first, she's ecstatic - "roundhead" is out of her life and she doesn't have to live with him anymore. Then the reality of being alone and being rejected sets in. The story of MY BRILLIANT DIVORCE then follows Angela over the next three years as she discovers this new version of her life.
Kate Normington is hilarious in the role. She moves through the story, creating vignettes of the character's life as she tackles getting divorced. She also creates all the different characters that Angela interacts with through the story - her chain-smoking mother, her quite revolting lawyer and the doctor who puts up with her hyperchondria with grace and charm (to name a few). These different characterisations are sharp and fun to watch - carefully crafted by Normington and director, Alan Committee. I did feel that performance switched from vignette to vignette and character to character a little too fast though. It felt like we needed time to breathe in between. This is also led to the play feeling like far more of a comedy without much of the tragedy of divorce.
I really liked the set with the strips of LED lighting to box the character into her house, with the colours changing to match her mood and the current vignette. I also loved the projection of paintings across the back of the stage. It was great fun to see them change and wonder how that image would link to the new vignette we were entering.
MY BRILLIANT DIVORCE is a good laugh with some great comedic characterisation. Catch it at Theatre on the Bay until 16 November. Tickets range from R180 to R250. Bookings at Webtickets or the Theatre On The Bay box-office on (021) 438-3301.
Photo credit: Keaton Ditchfield
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