The opening scene includes a chorus, a furious woman and a bottle of exotic liqueur at the bar so the Mediterranean setting is easy to slip into.
Annelise Paul as Jelena, a waitress at a Greek restaurant, has her bags ready and a plan for revenge against her ex Goran who is now married to the restaurant owner’s daughter.
Written and directed by Toby Hulse, A Woman Born To Sorrow is the first of an ancient Greek double bill and is based on Euripides’ Medea as a one act reimagined play.
The story is very cleverly done and Paul does a brilliant job of expressing every scorned woman’s rage at sacrificing so much for a man and not having her needs met.
The quality of the acting presented by the Bristol Acting Academy is excellent in the first play and it’s a shame the whole thing fades into more farce than intended by the time the second play by Hulse is brought to the stage. Well, maybe not from the start.
Joe Spurgeon as Martin Partridge is a natural as the smooth, smug and misogynistic author of Nuts-magazine-style books who has a secret he is trying to keep the Jezebel Book Group from revealing. His agent Rupert Moorhouse, played by Nigel Jones, is genuinely funny and both had the audience laughing with their devious actions.
The same actors play the same roles with Jo Smith as the waitress Dimi, Karl Wilson as Goran and Jonathan Attwood as Twenty to Twelve Dave who was exceptional with his Monty Pythone-esque comedic facial expressions.
The male actors were a treat to watch but the women were painful caricatures which included a leather jacket wearing butch woman ready to castrate any man and overbearing Stella who pours wine over husband/barman Goran and then sits on him.
As Zorba the Greek segues into Benny Hill with accompanying rapid circling of characters on stage you think it can’t get worse but it becomes something close to the recent Mamma Mia.
Stay after the interval at your peril but go for the first play because it is inspired and touching in a way that few productions can claim to be.
Review by Joanna Papageorgiou
Women Beware Men, Men Beware Women is at the Alma Tavern Theatre until Saturday. Visit www.almatavernandtheatre.co.uk/theatre/what-s-on to book tickets.
