Last week saw the opening of The Barn Theatre’s final production for their inaugural season - The Rise and Fall of Little Voice. For their third and final choice I liked the meta take with this particular production, and it was a fresh and modernised twist on Jim Cartwright’s classic - it paralleled the original but successfully took strides of its own with relevant cultural references. The latter was most prominent through Stephen Omar as sleazy club owner Mr Boo - using The Barn Theatre’s audience as his own, he tapped into the showmanship of it all and was wildly entertaining through his cheap thrills - very worthy of his title “king of the gutter” and had the audience in stitches. With regards to the storyline we all know the saying ‘what goes up must come down’, and this is very true for Little Voice. The narrative follows ‘the fall from grace’ motif, and is not too dissimilar from typical showbiz tragedies (Edie Sedgewick, Gia Carangi, Amy Winehouse) - the cast of Little Voice come crashing down from a quick encounter with glitz and glamour to the stripped back ruins of reality. The Rise and Fall of Little Voice is very much a tale of shattered dreams which comes as a very abrupt turnaround for a daughter and her overbearing mother. The production itself is very touching – centring on communication, or the lack thereof. For those not familiar with the story, think of a very coy teenager who seeks solace in her late father’s record collection. Through music Little Voice is able to access a space of freedom where she can express herself freely - from hiding in her room to singing her heart out on stage, Sarah Louise Hughes did a magnificent job at capturing both extremes. Then we have Little Voice’s mother Mari (Gillian McCafferty. Mari’s a broken woman lost in her own sort of way but fills the void with a bottle of booze. Her character, granted, is despicable but through wit she holds a certain northern charm – ignorant, but charming nonetheless. McCafferty was a captivating and larger than life presence as soon as she set foot on the stage, and through her tongue and cheek lingo she turned cheap chat into spoken word poetry. One of the most striking parts of this production is Little Voice’s debut at the tacky Bluebird Club run by Mr Boo, but it was also Sarah’s theatre debut and a show-stopping one at that. Sarah (Little Voice) gave a performance that made her seem as if she had a split personality, in the best kind of way. From singing the songs of Shirley Bassey and Marilyn Monroe, to Judy Garland and Billie Holliday, this was a triumphant performance given by Hughes – she shows such range in her vocal abilities as well as diverse capabilities in her acting skills. She’s definitely one to watch and definitely stole the show. This was a change of pace for the Barn Theatre’s third production, but it’s a show worth feeling melancholy for. The Rise and Fall of Little Voice will be on at Cirencester’s Barn Theatre until August 4. For further information and to purchase tickets click here.
