How does an author and a director create a meaningful play from an outdated yet timeless classic?

By Angie Millard

Photos by Charlotte Graham

Little Women was written in 1868 as a book for girls. It is set in New England during the American Civil War, a coming of age novel in which a mother and her four daughters live through many hardships and problems, while their father is away fighting in the war. It is a surprising but excellent choice for York Theatre Royal as it is  a play featuring five women struggling in a male-dominated society and has a range of  moving and also comic scenes.

The March sisters: Jo, Meg, Amy and Beth are all different but we watch them grow through hard work and self-sacrifice into strong young women. The book shows that the support and love of the family is of paramount importance. Moral judgements are made throughout and many lessons learnt. Little Women is an apposite title for the piece.

All very worthy? Maybe, but the audience adored it!

The adaptation by Anne-Marie Casey manages to avoid the obvious and potentially rather corny scenes, with a crisp narrative which highlights the struggles and disappointments in the lives of the family.

Freya Parks plays a tough and uncompromising Jo who beats a path to success as an author and marries a man who never compromises. Jack Ashton, who plays Jo’s husband, Professor Bhaer, embodies the prototype of an intellectual as the professor and achieves a totally sincere performance. He also doubles very effectively as John Brooke, Meg’s partner.

Amy Medina is Meg and we see her negotiating womanhood through marriage to the man she loves and finding contentment in her family.

Amy, probably the hardest role to play, is a girl who is prone to self-regard and laziness for which Jo judges her harshly. Amy navigates her way through to a life of luxury and marriage to Laurie, who Jo had rejected. Nikhil Singh Rae plays Laurie superbly developing from boyish playfulness to mature understanding of true love.

Beth becomes an invalid but under Juliet Forster’s perceptive direction she avoids the worst pitfalls of Victorian sentiment. Foster focuses on the messages she wishes to send to an educated, feminist audience and says clearly that these women had it tough but they showed determination and reached their goals. Kate Hampson provides solid security in the role of Marmee while Caroline Gruber, as a representative of society’s status quo, became the audience favourite with her one line pronouncements.

It was a deliciously heart-warming evening – unpretentious and gratifying. Just what we needed on a rainy September night.

Little Women is being performed at York Theatre Royal from 21 September to 12 October 2024.