REVIEW: In the Shadow of her Majesty at Jack Studio Theatre 12 - 16 November 2024

Photography: Tim Stubbs Hughes @ Grey Swan.



‘dark truths and raw subject matter laced with whip smart dialogue and the disarming effect of laughter and comedy’ ★★★★

It’s Christmas. There’s turkey swimming in brine in a bin outside, the bubbly has been popped and everyone’s in their glad rags. Despite all the signs of festivity the phrase ‘if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry’ has never seemed more apt. This family are used to putting on a brave face but sometimes, even on the toughest of women, the cracks can start to show. Doreen (Alice Selwyn) has wine hidden in the oven, eldest daughter and single mother Riley (Lois Tallulah) does her best to release pent up rage with frantic bursts of dance but one more wise-crack from middle sister Gemma (Nancy Brabin-Platt) and she might boil over. Then there’s the youngest, Jorja (Ella Harding). Everyone’s so busy dealing with their own drama that they don’t always notice her: she’s her own woman and sick of being seen as the baby. She seems to have found someone that loves her for what she is, but is there a price on that?

 In short, it’s a cramped household but that’s not just because of Covid 19’s sentence of lockdown. Looming over them all, like a bad dream that can’t be shaken, is Pentonville Prison. It’s more than just an eyesore for this household but a constant presence in their lives, whether they like it or not. Georgia’s dad is in there, and Riley’s baby’s dad has just joined him. In direct address to the audience, Riley tells us that they’ve all had to develop their own ‘survival bodies’, their own way of dealing with a trauma and a hurt that none of them want to see repeated. 

These survival bodies can be angry, quiet, ugly, sad and anything in between. All of these modes of survival are depicted skilfully by a cast of six female performers. Joining this tense family of four are two guests, Doreen’s best friend Trish (Jennifer Joseph) who, as well as bringing moments of joy and light heartedness to a family in desperate need of her lifting spirits, also completes an uncanny resemblance to another iconic double act-- Joanna Lumley and Jennifer Saunders in ‘Absolutely Fabulous’. Finally, there’s Jamila (Nadia Lamin) whose overwhelming baby bump seems determined to push its way into this family’s story. 

Writer Lois Tallulah and director Isla Jackson-Ritchie have created a play that doesn’t shy away from dark truths and raw subject matter yet does so through whip smart dialogue and the disarming effect of laughter and comedy. Through the complicated lives of these six women, the audience are shown the effects of incarceration on those who, though physically outside a system, become enveloped within its cold grasp. Though these characters’ opinions may diverge on the role of crime and punishment, one truth seems to ring true: There is never just one victim of incarceration. Prison may be for the perpetrator, but families and communities become hidden victims of a system which so often becomes focused on those inside the walls. 

In The Shadow of Her Majesty’s Prison

written Lois Tallualh

presented by Gas Money Productions 

Tuesday 12th – Saturday 16th November