Fallen Angels, Theatre by the Lake, Keswick

TWO upper middle class women get drunk during an evening while their hubbies are away playing golf - and the talk is all about love, passion and sex.

It’s hard to believe Coward’s Fallen Angels was first performed in 1925 as this production makes it as relevant and entertaining almost a century later.

Coward’s words capture the female code of sisterhood. The lines he provided for his character Julia and Jane ring honest and true from the mouths of Polly Lister and Frances Marshall. Their slow slip into intoxication by romantic memories and alcohol is superb.

The catfight is a beautiful piece of physical comedy played put to the rhythm of the amazing script. It’s entertaining and thought provoking, funny and melancholy. Are we ever in love for ever?

The third female star of the play and this production is Saunders, the female answer to Jeeves as Julia and Fred’s ‘treasure.’ Emily Tucker steals the limelight when she enters the room. Never underplayed, Tucker plays her part brilliantly - her superior knowledge outshines her ‘superior’ mistress. Together the three women bring Coward’s clever conversation to life, filling the theatre with laughter.

The poor husbands, Fred and Willy are the butt of the play’s joke - Richard Earl and Jonny McPherson play them for every laugh. And the mysterious foreigner Maurice, though a caricature of a Frenchman is a witty role, and Ben Ingles is well cast, as are all in this great production.

Karen Morley

Fallen Angels runs at Theatre by the Lake until November 7.