Raving Beauties – The Dancehouse Theatre, Manchester

Writer: Dave Simpson

Director: Helen Parry

Reviewer: Rebecca Mickler

The Public Reviews Rating:

In front of a red curtain and lonely spotlight; on walks Jack Bailey. He is accompanied by his almost faithful Pianist whilst singing a pub singer version of ‘She’ by Elvis Costello and sports a Mullet Pat Sharp would have been proud of, a gold sequined shirt, white blazer and white socks. I thought I was in for a long night, until he started telling Jokes. Dirty ones.

It’s 1985 and Jack Bailey is hosting the annual ‘Miss Goldengate’ beauty pageant at his Salfordian Working Men’s Club. The already ‘local personality’ Bailey has invited some very important guests in the hope of upping his profile and makes sure the girls in the pageant know about his efforts before they go on. Cooped up in a dingy back room, the girls and one guy dressed as a girl all have their own agendas for showcasing themselves. These agendas become spectacularly apparent as the play unfolds. Mark Sheals is hilarious as Jack Bailey as he compares the pageant, insults the girls, and gets far too close to them for comfort. Equally, Katie McArdle plays the clumsy, ditsy Karen well who is seen as the odd one out by the other, more experienced girls.

Raving Beauties, written by Dave Simpson, is a multi-faceted play that has you laughing and cringing at Bailey’s misogyny and pervertedness one minute while smacking you in the face with each girls own personal turmoil the next. As an observant writer, Dave Simpson is able to present an entertaining but sensitive view to the audience on the subject of gender inequality. This version of the play, produced by Broken Echo theatre company, has managed to encompass it’s snappy dialogue while adding fantastic character acting performed by the whole cast. The only constructive criticism I can see worth mentioning is that the pace of the play seemed to slow down a little in the second half in places where scenes didn’t need dramatic effect.

All in all however, it was a sterling performance by the cast, excellent direction by Helen Parry, and hilarious one-liners and insults all round; making Raving Beauties a ‘must see now’ for a truly great night out.