Laughter bubbled in the audience's throats reading what was projected on the screen behind the set. The play was fully researched and a guarantee is read between images of different historical points of time, that the team involved have done their research. 100% factual! A wink here, wink there and some breaking of the fourth wall where Clementine reassures us laughing and sarcastic that this play was as factual as it gets.
In this humorous, feel-good, and inspiring work, Lady Clementine is sent on a journey to solve her misfortunes following the disappearance of her newest beau. It's a hilarious musical comedy about all of the things that single women are supposed to do and the ridiculous clichés that go along with it.
Egotistically and perfectly aligning with her character, Rosaline performs all the characters. After all the stage is not big enough to be shared with anyone when Clementine is here. The one-woman element enhanced the character and her chaotic personality much more. It also allowed freedom for Clementine’s personality to go wild by breaking the fourth wall and stealing audience members to play characters and read letters- after all women from the past couldn’t read. We were warned that this play was fully researched at the start.
Stealing an audience member to play Clementine’s newest beau, Sir Bradley, she drapes the audience member-turned-actor with a red cloak. It hilariously symbolises the red flag that Clementine says he is but ignores it as her desire for marriage and the pressure from her family to be married overwhelmed how emotionally constipated Bradley is. Toxic who now?
The silliness of the chaos Clementine creates is engaging to watch. Cheeks aching from the constant laughter was a common occurrence during the play.
And the silliness of it all was enhanced by the music!
The most cinematic music was heard during Clemetinie’s journey to find her aunt who may hold the answers to her questions on why she couldn’t be loved. All her past lovers had suspicious deaths and now our Clementine might believe she’s cursed! And that worsens her sickness called ‘being single.’ Cinematic music as in when the hero who was just losing against the villain suddenly gets the strength to fight back. In this case, it was Clementine slaying dragons with her umbrella, travelling the multiverse only to find every version of herself suffers from the same alignment! The accuracy is immaculate. The audience can see how hard the play was researched.
We even had Running up the hill playing! The music enhanced the moments within the play adding to the chaos dressed in blue but this time ditched her sunglasses for a pink cloak. The whole experience was aided by the projector that changed images and videos to match the scene of the crazy journey. Audio used to let us hear Clemeintine’s thoughts during the journey added to the hilarity of the situation as the actress fought for her life. Clementine can’t fight or survive while narrating to us but she also can’t let her audience miss out on what is going on. The audio enriched that moment with the actress’s body language and facial expressions that sold the words coming out of the speaker.
Did we mention this was a musical?
Clementine is chaos, catastrophe and calamity all in one. Her singing sparked more chaos and the lights enhanced the crazy element of the character. So many colours moving erratically, mirroring the actress’s behaviour.
In the end Chaos in her blue dress finds her true love in the end. Herself, Clementine.
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