Written and performed by Selina Helliwell
Directed by Hannah Heaton
Review by Jayne Skudder
Live Theatre is back with great gusto at this year’s Greater Manchester Fringe!
Staged at the Anthony Burgess centre in Manchester, ‘The Formidable Lizzie Boone’, written and performed by the talented Selina Helliwell, directed by Hannah Heaton, made its mark at this year’s Greater Manchester Fringe Festival.
Simply set with a chair and minimal props, the stage was versatile to a range of settings and Selina’s performance filled the space, as she immersed herself into the complex character of Lizzie Boone. Lighting and sound effects successfully contributed to the atmosphere of the piece and signified the passing of time or different settings like when Lizzie performed her vibrant Burlesque number.
With themes of sexual assault and mental health this play tackles serious issues through comedy and pathos bringing us back to Lizzie’s reality like a slap in the face. This worked well when Lizzie began to perform Burlesque and her controlling boyfriend Rick (voice by Adrian Stretton) puts her down calling her a ‘selfish bitch’, who isn’t even hot. Voiceover is used intermittently to allow us to see how Lizzie interacts with other characters in her life and to act as a trigger to another thought/story. This works well and the pace as a result is en pointe.
Lizzie, we learn, is a troubled person and through her therapy sessions with Marie (Carla Kayani Lawman), we get a glimpse of Lizzie’s life at different stages- being bullied at six years old, called names and ridiculed for her appearance. Labelled a lesbian at high school, until at fifteen she lost her virginity to Sam, who told everyone! She then became- skank, slut, scrubber…The toxicity of words and how they can affect lives, has a common theme in Selina’s other play-Fruit Salad and is an important message to convey to society.
Voiceover (Mary taylor) from Debz with a Z -because it’s meant to be cool- brought much humour to the piece as the down to earth, vodka loving Debz elaborated on her relationship with men and sex. These snippets generated laughter throughout the auditorium but again drew on flaws in society and moved on the plot.
Selina owned this role physically- the sexual assault scene involving Mr Paxam the PE teacher, was sensitively handled but the message was loud and clear and reflects how women are blamed for the behaviour of some men. This had a knock on effect to Lizzie’s mental health, in that it was never reported or even discussed; unfortunately this is still a true reality within society today. Theatre is an excellent forum to tackle and bring these issues to the forefront: a catalyst for change. It was a bold choice and a well executed piece.