Review: LOVE ALL by Dorothy L Sayers at Jermyn Street Theatre 8 Sept - 8 Oct 2022

‘some men can never quite grasp that the ‘gels’ have talents, desires and ambitions of their own’ ★★★★

So many famous people are ultimately remembered for a single thing or moment with the rest of their achievement largely parked in forgotten history. Dorothy L Sayers, writer of crime stories, rival of Agatha Christie, was also a respected theologian and poet, and, it turns out, an occasional, if not particularly successful, playwright.

Love All hasn’t had a substantial revival since its short initial existence in 1940, and is a romantic(ish) comedy(ish) in Noel Coward vein in which a self-centred novelist (Alan Cox) finds that his playwright wife (Leah Whitaker) and actress mistress (Emily Barber, superbly brittly shallow) neither overmuch need him nor much care to darn his socks.

While the overarching theme that some (most?) men can never quite grasp that the ‘gels’ have talents, desires and ambitions of their own will doubtless remain relevant in another 82 years and beyond, director Tom Littler’s final production for Jermyn Street (as Artistic Director of the venue) doesn’t make too much effort to seek deeper modern resonance in a play that sits firmly and pleasingly in its own time.

From its opening in Venice, where Godfrey and his mistress Lydia have become bored waiting for his wife’s approval of a divorce, to its conclusion in London where Godfrey discovers that Janet is now a more successful writer than he is, the play is sharply dressed and sharply performed with enough laugh-out loud lines to induce a warm glow, particularly at Godfrey’s mysoginistic expense.

There are also scene-stealing roles for Bethan Cullinane and Karen Ascoe as the two writers’ secretaries and Daniel Burke (making very much the most of it) and Jim Findley as the star actor and producer of Janet’s hit play.

Beyond its being a thoroughly enjoyable curiosity, though, it’s hard to see why the play was worth its revival and likely it may return to the vault. Still, second-rate Coward is better than no Coward at all, and it would take a very hard heart not to delight in Godfrey’s comeuppance as the final curtain falls.

Photographer credit Steve Gregson

LOVE ALL by Dorothy L Sayers

Director: Tom Littler

Jermyn Street Theatre     8 September to 8 October 2022

Box Office: www.jermynstreettheatre.co.uk/ 020 7287 2875

Reviewer:

David Weir’s plays include Confessional (Oran Mor, Glasgow), Better Together (Jack Studio, London). Those and others performed across Scotland, Wales and England, and in Australia, Canada, Switzerland and Belgium. Awards include Write Now Festival prize, Constance Cox award, SCDA best depiction of Scottish life, Joy Goun award, and twice Bruntwood longlisted.