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Prayers and thoughts: The Inseparables @Finboroughtheatre

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The Inseparables brings Simone de Beauvoir’s posthumously published novel to life. It traces a lifelong friendship between Sylve and Andrée, two unconventional girls who grew up in a stifling world where being a woman meant getting married or entering a convent. With a quick pace and engaging performances from the two leads, it is a journey back into the 20th century that captures two unconventional women trapped in a conventional world that will have you reflecting on how much or little things have moved on in the last century. It’s currently playing at the Finborough Theatre .  We’re introduced to Sylve praying for her country, France, to be saved from the war and indoctrinated into the world of faith and obedience. But too smart for all that, her life was full of detached guilt and boredom. But when she meets Andrée, a new arrival at her school, she is struck by how different she is from everyone else. She was burned in a fire and had a passion for life that nobody else she knew...

Some old goose: Mother Goose @wiltonmusichall


A terrific cast, a fun story and the fabulous atmosphere of Wiltons Music Hall make Mother Goose a panto not to miss this season. Well, if you like that sort of thing...

Roy Hudd writes and stars as the Pantomime Dame Mother Goose. She is an old woman who befriends a rather large and lonely goose. In return the goose gives her riches beyond her wildest dreams. Naturally being a poor old woman of meagre means it goes to her head. She sells her soul and her goose and ends up looking as it she should be in The Only Way Is Essex.

It is an odd story for a pantomime, but it's clear that Hudd and his wife, director Debbie Flitcroft, know the essence of good panto. There is a battle between good and evil, spectacular costumes, audience participation. Not to mention a mix of songs and some pretty hoary jokes and ad-libs.



Hudd took inspiration from the original Mother Goose panto created in 1902 for music hall legen Dan Leno. And at various points it feels like you are being transported back to music hall's glory days.

Julia Sutton as the (ahem) slightly mature fairy Virtue shows off some gravity defying high kicks. She also has a couple of fabulous music-hall style songs. Up against her virtuous performance is Vanity played with evil seriousness by Gareth Davies. He has been touring playing Fagin in Oliver but admits he is much better as a Nancy. We would tend to agree, particularly in that purple suit.

Other highlights in the cast include comedian Ian Jones as Willy, Mother Goose's son. He keeps the show moving while Ian Parkin as the stingy squire of the village gives the show another villain to boo.

Mother Goose is at Wilton's Music Hall until 31 December.

⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎



A version of this review first appeared in Londonist.
Photo credit: production photos by Matt Crossick

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