‘Vintage! Dancing! Earwigs!’ yells the front of house person handing out flyers to drum up business for Earwig just outside the Assembly Rooms. It’s burning hot and the beer garden is formidable competition. One queue member laments that we’re exiled to a portacabin in the street when we could be in the magnificent venue next door. Once inside the cool, calm, space though, it feels like a lucky escape.
A cast of three rattle through this enchanting comedy drama set in the 1920s, and we get all of the vintage, dancing and earwigs that we were promised.
Laura Crow, who is also the writer, plays Marigold Webb, a woman who lost her hearing when she was a child and who studies insects. She likes to classify people, assigning them an insect species that reflects their personality. It helps her feel less anxious. Her social climbing mother marries her off to a domineering man with a better lifestyle but friendships with a flapper and a fellow insect enthusiast, as well as a sudden piece of good fortune, help her to find herself.
It’s the kind of plot that would have gone down a storm in the era in which it’s set. And there’s some nifty silent movie inspired physical theatre, Jazz age dance moves, and movie style title cards that move the story along, with the latter sometimes functioning as a characters in their own right.
Time and Again specialise in historical plays and there’s a lovely attention to detail to be found here. The costumes and attitudes have an air of authenticity without being pedantic. The music is Baz Lurhmann-esque, which gives a sense of how revolutionary all those bluesy trumpets and high hemlines were.
The script is perhaps a little too formulaic, but there’s some funny lines and it’s never less than entertaining. Catherine Cowdrey playing the mother and the flapper, and Ben Hynes playing the husband and the friend are both brilliant at moving between each of their characters, so that you’re never in doubt who is speaking. Crow is the heart and guts of the piece though, blossoming from withdrawn girl to confident expert.
Go for the ‘Vintage! Dancing! Earwigs!’ and have a drink later.