“How To Date A Feminist” by Samantha Ellis

Nottingham Lace Market Theatre

Can I say that it is lovely to be back at the Lace Market Theatre again after an absence of over eighteen months, not only is it lovely to be back, it’s lovely to see you back on stage. Keeping the name of the theatre in everyone’s mind, and keeping actors going, the Lace Market theatre have been producing on line productions, and while they have been great to watch online, it’s even better to be sat in the seats and to experience the smell, and the whole ambience of being at the Lace Market Theatre yet again.

Samantha Ellis’s play “How to Date A Feminist” is a comedy that rubs shoulders with the Hollywood romcom as it explores the difficulties of finding true love amidst the complexities of modern dating etiquette and gender roles.

The play was written to be performed by a cast of two doubling all the parts, but Director Alison Hope has made sure that all the different characters are played by a different actor, which I think is a good choice. Not only does this make it easier on the two main actors, which would have had to play all the other roles, but it simplifies things for the audience. Not only that but as the first play back in the season, it gives more actors the opportunity to get back on stage again.

Kate is a thirty-year-old journalist who, in the opening scene, is surprised to be proposed to by her boyfriend Steve, also thirty, a baker. Steve is a committed feminist (his mother, Morag, instilled feminism in him from an early age, taking him with her to the Greenham Common protests), and his proposal of marriage is accompanied by a clumsy apology on behalf of the patriarchy.

Kate, who feels she suffers from a fatal attraction to bad men, is less than enchanted, and the proposal sparks a crisis in their relationship that is only to be resolved through a series of arguments, misunderstandings and infidelities.

From the off let me say that this play, which until a few weeks ago I had never heard of, is very funny. The writing flows really well and the delivery from all is natural, especially between the two main characters, Kate and Steve. it is almost like eavesdropping on conversations of their life.

Charlie Osborne (Kate) and Harrison Lee (Steve), gel so well together and you can feel that these two characters are meant to be together, a tribute to both Charlie's and Harrison's acting abilities to make us believe this.

Emily Kelsey (Carina), plays Steve's former fiancée who we discover may not be quite the tough cookie, we are first led to believe. You don't get many female stone gargoyle carvers do you?

Malcolm Todd (Joe), Elaine Garrod (Morag) play Kate's dad and Steve's mum. Both characters at opposite ends of the spectrum, or are they? Gradually they discover that they may have more things in common than first thought! Both actors great fun to watch, and both seasoned character actors.

Simon Aitchison (Ross). returns to the stage and am-dram after a thirteen year hiatus to play Kate's boss, who just happens to like mixing business with pleasure. A bad man and just the sort of man Kate has a penchant for, but not quite Heathcliffe.

As a whole the cast are really comfortable, not only in their characters but as a unit cast, and they make you believe the people they are playing and make you forget that you are watching actors on a stage.

Set Design is by Linda Croston who is also in charge of the wardrobe department. A minimal set that worked to the play's advantage as apart from a table and chairs and three boxes, used as seats and two florescent signs, there was just a part of the scenery to have the projections beamed onto.

The costumes are wonderful, as well as fun, and a lot of sourcing or creating has gone into the costumes for this production

The Lighting Design, Sound and Projection Design is all by Matthew Alcock. The lighting was a simple, but again effective affair and the sound was a varied soundtrack covering sixty plus years of music drops. From Elton John, Pharrell Williams, Bryan Adams and Ed Sheeran to The Five Satins ("To the Aisle" was not a song I'd heard before but now love it) and the Dixie Cups, to party classics from Kool & The Gang, Abba and Nena. What a brilliant soundtrack to a play.

The projections were great as they moved the play on without the actors having to do anything. Great photography and if you are not going to have an actor to look at on stage, this is the perfect way to fill in the gaps, complete with more of that wonderful soundtrack and keeping the audience's eyes fixed on the stage.

Alison Hope directed this little gem and Alison has omitted nothing. I love the fact that when the pair were eating chips, they had polystyrene containers with chips in. When Kate and Joe were having coffee, from what I could gather, there was liquid in the cups. It is little things like these that, for me, show that reality in a play is uppermost, as some directors may ask their actors to mime eating chips, putting sugar in the coffee etc. The play was kept pacy throughout, and I was pleasantly surprised when the interval came around and was eager for Act Two to resume.

I started off by saying that this play is very funny, as well as poignant. This may be an understatement on my part. It has a brilliantly entertaining storyline, a great script, and a stage full of excellent actors, showing us all what we have been missing from the Lace Market Theatre. We now just need to get those bums back on those new, and very smart and comfortable, red seats, and selling out the rest of the week. This is one play that welcomes you back to this theatre and a brilliant start to the Lace Market theatre's new season.

“How To Date A Feminist” is at the Lace Market Theatre until Saturday 25 September.