Review: WE COULD ALL BE PERFECT, Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse
Photo credit: Becky Payne
Sheffield Theatres’ latest production, We Could All Be Perfect, explores the lived experiences of girls throughout history. Through a series of largely unrelated scenes, the play highlights the challenges that women face in having to be perfect for those around them. The show, quite rightly, has an all-female cast with an almost all-female creative team leading to the production feeling really authentic.
Hannah Morley’s script is well-paced and packs in a wide range of emotions. Director Ruby Clarke brings Morley’s words to life very well, keeping the show feeling consistent despite the stand alone scenes. A wide range of eras are shown through Rūta Irbīte’s costumes whilst they all have a somewhat consistent look which works well. The inclusion of pop music and DK Fashola’s choreography adds energy to the show and is great fun to watch.
The cast of five all do a tremendous job at bringing to life a huge number of characters each. They all have a great rapport with one another and portray the differing relationships between teenage girls explored in the play very well.
Alice Walker is wonderful, carrying the one story that is revisited in the play. She portrays the character’s downfall into starvation in this dystopian world (that definitely feels like it could be the plot for a show in and of itself) brilliantly. Jada-Li Warrican is equally wonderful, building a great onstage chemistry with Walker. Throughout the show, Warrican is warm and likeable and always a joy to watch.
Anshula Bain portrays a range of characters, particularly shining when playing younger, more naïve teenagers and the bully going through her own personal struggles. Heather Forster gives her best Greta Thunberg towards the end of the play, although this moment feels a little shoehorned in.
Rosa Hesmondhalgh is outstanding in this play. She is one of the best at finding completely different characterisations for each one of her many characters. As an older member of the company, she portrays the biggest range in characters and she is just as great whether she’s playing a mother struggling with what to tell her child or a young teenaged girl.
We Could All Be Perfect ends somewhat optimistically, highlighting the power that women and girls have to make a difference on the world around them. However, the fast-paced, episodic nature of the play does mean that we don’t quite get to fully explore some of the more interesting relationships and stories included.
This is certainly a show that is very timely and relevant to teenage girls, of which there were quite a few in the audience. We look forward to hearing more of Hannah Morley as writer in the future, as we’re sure she has a bright future ahead of her in creating theatre with strong commentary on the world around us.
**** Four stars
Reviewed by: Jacob Bush
We Could All Be Perfect plays at the Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse until 14 October, with further information here.