Feminism may no longer be the dirty word it was, but it's vital the movement's foundations are never forgotten.
This new play from the boldly named Theatre Revolution probably isn't the most radical vehicle for such a notion, though it's a game enough look at the 1960s counter-culture as seen from the sofa by three very different women.
It's 1969, Vicki is writing for the women's page of a London tabloid and lodging with the bohemian Vivien while being courted by Jack. Into their lives breezes Ursula, an Australian actress and Vietnam protester who buys into hippy ideals more than any of them.
Over a series of episodic scenes we see them fall out, argue ideology, share each other's self-absorption and spout naive platitudes as only children of the 1960s can.
All of which in Iain McAleese's production of Karen Barclay's script developed from a devising process looks and sounds like a more flamboyant and politically inclined take on female flat-share dramas such as Take Three Girls and The Pleasure Girls that used to pop un on screens great and small back in the day. In fact, so unremittingly naturalistic is the play that television would be a far better home for it than the stage.
If this seems odd given how the play was created, there are some well-observed studies of how both the class and gender wars could so easily go off the rails, particularly in Frankie MacEachan's sapphically inclined Vivien.
Too often, however, the lines sound like they're grafted to an idea that never fully allows them to breathe in a curious look back in languor.
HHH
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