“Three Tall Women” by Edward Albee
Nottingham Lace Market Theatre.

The play centres around three women; a 92 year old woman, a 52 year old hired caretaker and a 26 year old lawyer working on behalf of the eldest woman’s law firm.

The women, who have no given names, I’ll call A, B and C.

The play opens with the three women together in A's bedroom. Throughout the scene, A does most of the talking, frequently reminiscing and telling stories about her life. B humours her, while helping her do everyday things that have become difficult to do alone. C, who struggles to get a rare word edgewise about the duties she's there to do, is most often deterred by A's storytelling. C often challenges A's statements; but she is discouraged by B, who is clearly used to A and her habits.

Act Two sees the three characters all as A at different stages of her life recalling A’s past, and it's this section where we find out about the loves, and experiences that they went through at the various times of their lives. we also discover that she had a son, who they call "the boy" throughout.

There's a lot of comedy but there's also a lot of sombre moments throughout both acts.

Amanda Pearce plays “A”, and in Act One you can feel the pain of this 92 year old as she gingerly makes her way from her chair to the toilet with help from "B". The physicality of this role is perfect, and what surprised me was seeing Amanda in Act Two when the shaking, twisted and physically broken A appeared as a younger self. A really well observed character piece of theatre presented by Amanda and a great debut for the Lace Market Theatre for Amanda.

Susan Lee plays “B” and Act two again brought about another wonderful piece of character acting. While B in Act One seemed to show an almost defeated character, Act two saw A in full strength, fiery and in her prime, and the main narrator of the piece.

Charlotte Thomas plays “C” and while Act Two saw us discovering more about the younger years of "A", wanting to know more about what was to come from the other two elder "A" characters, but not everything she learned was what she wanted to hear.

Some of the language used by the "A" characters was quite explicit, When delivered by the 92 year old "A" came as quite a shock, well it would do hearing what occurred in her dressing room from a ninety plus year old looking back at her life.

Harrison Lee plays the part of the boy in Albee’s play, and while it being a non speaking role, I don't think it would have worked without the physical presence of "the boy".

This play is a brilliant and emotional play for women to present, and the choices for the cast were well chosen.

Allan Green was the Lighting Director, and the subtlety of the design was not wasted on me. The closing in on the focused actor on stage really made the audience member focus, and I also liked the image through light of the window effect on stage. this in itself made us feel that we were voyeurs, peeping through the windows into someone else's life. It also gave character "C" a reason for moving to the front of the stage in Act One, as if she was looking out of a window and not just staring out from the stage. It painted a picture which is what fine lighting design can do.

“Three Tall Women” is at the Nottingham Lace Market theatre until Saturday 19 October