Cast

Synopsis

Little Voice (LV) lives alone with her mother Mari whose sole purpose is to find another man. Mari’s imposing presence drives the shy LV into spending her time in her bedroom listening to her beloved father’s records. When small-time impresario Ray Shears hears LV’s
faultless impersonations of famous singers, he recognizes the gold in her voice and determines to exploit it.

Directors Notes

Following a performance of BLT’s last production “Dial M for Murder” successfully directed by Rob Martin, one season ticket holder whom I shall call ‘Bemused of Bingley’ was overheard to say “I did enjoy it, but at my age I really prefer something that makes me laugh so I leave the theatre uplifted. Anyway, the next play looks like it’s going to suit me fine because it’s a musical. Technically, this is a play that has some music in it. However, I must warn ‘Bemused of Bingley’ that if they are expecting something like ‘Oklahoma’ they will be disappointed. The Guardian’s theatre critic accurately said this play was a ‘northern showbiz fairytale, a backstreet Cinderella story, with a built-in kick’. It gives us a glance of extremely raw northern backstreet life, with sex, booze and gutter language on the surface and gut wrenching emotion lurking under it. Deprived of a loving father from an early age and abused by her loutish mother Little Voice, LV, turned inwards. There she discovered an astonishing ability to impersonate some of the well-known performers of the twentieth century. This ability could deliver the whole world to her on a plate. Yet in her hard edged world mere survival is a supreme achievement. Author Jim Cartwright, ‘one of the mavericks of British Theatre’, was born in 1958 in Farnworth, Lancashire. He left school at 16 and worked as an actor after training at Central School of Speech and Drama in London. Like his contemporary Caryl Churchill, whose play ‘Three More Sleepless Nights’ I directed in BLT’s Studio some while ago, Cartwright was commissioned by the Royal Court Theatre to write new plays reflecting current social issues. As with Churchill, the Royal Court backed a winner with Cartwright who has been favourably compared with Samuel Beckett in his depiction of the human condition. Written in 1991 and first performed at the National Theatre in 1992, ‘The Rise and Fall of Little Voice’ won the 1992 Evening Standard Best Comedy Award and the 1993 Olivier Award for Best Comedy. In 1998 the play was successfully adapted for film. As with the National’s stage production the film proved a wonderful vehicle for Jane Horrocks, of TV’s ‘Absolutely Fabulous’ to show her amazing skill as both a singer and impersonator. The film also starred Brenda Blethyn as LV’s mother Mari, and Michael Caine as Mari’s lover. Cinema-buff patrons who are expecting this production to be a replica of the film may also feel they have been sold short tonight. Rather than attempting to reproduce any aspect of the film I have chosen to work solely from Cartwright’s play text. Subsequently, unlike the film, which presents a rather whimsical, comical slice of British life peopled with sympathetic and funny characters, this production reflects a more harrowing view of the world from an unexpected angle – which at times is hilarious and at others is hauntingly sad. I hope you find this theatrical experience interesting!