Southwark Playhouse – until 11 January 2025
Reviewed by Claire Roderick
3***
Creating a comic romp based on Flaubert’s seminal novel is a big ask, but John Nicholson’s adaptation has “lovingly derailed” the source material and Ha Hum Ah and Minack Theatre’s production is fantastic fun.
The fourth wall is broken almost immediately as two rat catchers arrive in town and realise that they have forgotten the vital ingredient for their secret weapon in the war against rodents – arsenic. When they buy the pharmacy’s entire stock, Emma seeks them out as she is desperate for arsenic to end her life and begins to explain why she wants to die to the ratcatcher.
This framing device is pointed out early on by the cast as a clever way to arrive at a happier ending and works well as Emma describes her life. Marrying Charles Bovary was an escape from her family home, but once she realised what life as a provisional doctor’s wife was like, how could she escape that? Nicholson has written Charles Bovary as a man dedicated to his work but has ramped up his awkwardness to comic heights with Darren Seed giving a wonderful performance reminiscent of John Finnemore’s hapless characters.
As Emma seeks comfort and passion elsewhere – her announcement that they will be having a daughter is met with an incredulous “how?” by her husband – her tastes for the finer things in life become more extravagant and she falls ever deeper into debt with the merchant Lheureux.
With a cast of just four, the number of quick changes of character and costume needed to tell this story is remarkable, and handled brilliantly by the cast, with Stephen Cavanagh displaying a catalogue of delightful comic accents as the various residents of the town. Ben Kernow is a hoot as Emma’s lovers, especially in his dramatic entrances as the rakish Rodolphe.
Georgia Nicholson is wonderful as Emma – exasperated, disappointed, seductive, girlishly romantic or calculating, depending on which man she is reacting to. It is only in her narrative sections with the rat catcher that you feel she realises the true impact of her choices as these are less slapstick and slower paced. Nicholson does get the chance to deliver a promising monologue about the autonomy of female characters in classic literature and Emma’s right to choose death. Her reactions as the men can’t help but ignore her and gleefully carry on with their agenda instead of respecting her decisions are hilarious and very relatable.
Kirstie Davis’s assured direction keeps everything on track, but there are times when easy laughs that aren’t needed have been crammed in and you begin to wonder what this amazing cast could do with a sharper script. There are some wonderful comedy set pieces, and Emma and Rodolpho’s sex scene is worth the ticket price alone – who knew magic could be so sexy?