BWW Reviews: PUNCHING JANE, The Courtyard, June 11 2014

The work of Victorian London's working girls was always tough and never more so than in those houses of ill-repute that staged punch-ups between the prostitutes - the better to get the johns' juices flowing and their wallets opening. Ed Young and Jess Farley's Punching Jane (continuing at The Courtyard until 29 June) is set in one such establishment which, sordid though it may be, is a better alternative for the girls than The Street, Bedlam or an alternative house whose punters are rather more alternative in their tastes than the boxing fanboys.

When Jane arrives from Up North, she makes the mistake of fighting for real, laying out top girl Mary, upsetting the girls' carefully constructed pecking order under the house's Madam. If spats like that can be managed, the recent death of the house's owner and assumption of his rights by his son Thomas, carrying a chip on his shoulder the size of a beam, is a rather more serious development for the girls, especially ex-orphan Molly whose slow ways have not put off Thomas's sidekick and cousin, Harry.

It's not a bad set-up, but the writers never really work out what to do with it. Emma Pilson introduces Jane as a charismatic and ballsy outsider whose clash with the other alpha female, a bruising and bruised Kayleigh Hawkins, looks likely to form the backbone of the play. But its focus switches to the unconvincing romance growing between Jinny Lofthouse's beautiful, but so scared, Mary, and Harry, for whom Tom Ziebell does all he can with a very underwritten role. As the two authority figures, Hayley Thompson and Ed Young cannot escape caricature, their backstories never properly explained, so we never really believe in them as fully rounded people. It's a shame that Jane and Mary have so little to do in the second half of the play as they are the yin and yang on which plots can grow.

This little known pugilistic niche of the Victorian City presents opportunities to say something very interesting about women, about power and about hypocrisy, but, above all that, it presents a marvellous opportunity for drama. If that first opportunity is taken to some extent, the second is rather eschewed. However, perhaps under a director independent of the writers, I can see Punching Jane being re-worked to flesh out the characters and tighten the focus on the storylines. If so, I'll be looking out for it, as there's plenty of potential amongst these brawling broads.

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