What Every Woman Knows

Published Tuesday 17 January 2006 at 13:15 by Natalie Anglesey

Although JM Barrie will always be associated with Peter Pan, the Royal Exchange has also mounted successful productions of his other rarely performed works, Mary Rose and The Admirable Crichton.

Now Artistic Director Braham Murray turns his attention to Barrie’s pro-feminist comedy, written at the height of the Suffrage Movement, which cleverly illustrates that you do not have to bang a drum to demonstrate the superiority of women.

Jenny Ogilvie is perfect casting as Maggie displaying a quiet strength throughout as well as painfully silent fortitude when she learns of her husband’s betrayal. Although her self-deprecation seems at odds with the role of women in modern society, she plays it with such sincerity that instead of alienating the audience, they cheered her to the ceiling.

As loyal members of Maggie’s family, James Watson, Roy Sampson and Michael Moreland are totally believable whilst Mark Arends, as her self-obsessed husband, John Shand, makes the audience wonder how such an intelligent woman could love such an unsympathetic character.

There is an additional bonus in two beautifully crafted performances from Gabrielle Drake as the wordly-wise Comtesse de la Briere and Michael Elwyn as Venables, the senior politician.

Design honours are shared between Johanna Bryant and Louise Ann Gibson with sumptuous costumes and sets which brought spontaneous applause.

This delightful gem of a play has been ignored for too long and Braham Murray’s sparkling production had the audience cheering for more.