Not so 'Touched' sadly

Massive apologies for the embarrassing hiatus….. I got myself Twittering and this poor blog suffered…. 140 characters just seems less daunting… but promise to be better!

So to catch up:
A couple of weeks ago I popped along to see ‘Touched…for the very first time’. A new one woman play written by Zoe Lewis debuting at the Trafalgar Studios with Sadie Frost in the leading/only role. My views are below – as printed in The Stage newspaper:

Sadie Frost’s return to the stage for the first time since 1988 was an exciting prospect and the celebrity-sprinkled audience was really rooting for her. The only problem? It was like Frost doing a mildly amusing stand-up show and not like Frost playing a plump girl from Manchester called Lesley who is obsessed with Madonna.

Sure she gets the northern accent and Lewis’ occasionally sharp and apt script makes the whole thing tick along easily enough, but it is more like watching a candidate presenting their speech and drama monologue exam entry.

Frost begins by playing Lesley at 14 and finishes playing her in her 40s. It’s fair to say she gets more convincing as she heads nearer her real-life age, but frustratingly the character never seems to get any deeper - nor does she accrue any wisdom.

Lewis is trying to show the effects of having a feminist mother as Lesley ends up with a great career but no husband or family of her own. And even when Madonna, her idol, opts into family life, although Lesley feels cheated (despite having a so-called fabulous life, job and friends), she still can’t shake the memory of the first boy she loved and ends up frustrated and alone.

You know from contextual reading that Lewis is reflecting parts of her own life, but the deeper debate you want Lesley to probe only skims the surface. Instead Lewis prefers her protagonist to waltz around the stage in fashion fad clothes to period music - which incidentally is wonderful, especially as Frost has a fabulously nubile figure and an extreme watchability - and only lightly muse on these issues. High points? Frost’s graceful movements and comic timing - despite several noticeable line stumbles.

So as the real-life paparazzi broke on to the stage and her celebrity mates cheered, Frost unfortunately remained Frost - right before the audience’s eyes.