Review: The Regina Monologues, Lace Market Theatre

The Regina Monologues is so named of course to remind us of the over-rated, by now tired and deeply un-shocking Vagina Monologues. As in that piece we get monologues from women sitting in a row. Here it’s six contemporary types, each of whom is intended to parallel one of the wives of Henry VIII.

They’ve all in turn been married to the same man, a ginger-headed bloke. Each of the marriages takes the same sort of course as its equivalent, except that the ginger-headed bloke doesn’t have two of the wives beheaded; their modern fate is arguably worse.

A lot of the time the women make you laugh; but they also evoke compassion and pity: forced marriage, sexual abuse of minors and self-harm are no joke. It possibly seems paradoxical and counter-intuitive to suggest as much, but you might also feel sorry for the ginger-headed bloke, a figure of pathos surely.

Arguably, this is a plea on behalf of poor broken humanity in general as much as a dig against men.

Casting is excellent, and so is the acting. Clare Choubey, Tamzin Grayson, Amber Forrest, Heidi Hargreaves, Nicky Ubhi and Kelly Gross-Bias play six beautifully differentiated women. The most obviously memorable might be “curvey” bogus blonde Anna with the northern adenoidal voice and a big surprise for us at the end; or Katie, the victim of the arranged sexual encounter with an uncle. But there are also the lucky one, Katherine, who outlives the bloke with ginger hair; the childless Cathy; the alcoholic Annie; and Jane, who is seen in childbirth.

It’s an earthy evening, unsuitable for youngsters. The dialogue is filled with, albeit non-gratuitous, Anglo-Saxonisms and basic talk about physical relationships and the human body. But it all rings utterly true.

It was a sell-out audience, and rightly so.

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THE REGINA MONOLOGUES Nottingham Lace Market Theatre

Set in the intimate setting of the upstairs section of the Lace Market Theatre you'll find a very different play this week, The Regina Monologues, not to be mistaken for the similar sounding play by Eve Ensler, although there are similarities.

Written by  Rebecca Russell and Jenny Wafer and directed by Dan Maddison this is one thought provoking, funny, sad, emotive play that packs an awful lot in just 75 minutes.

Six wives recount their feelings and what they are going through being married to Henry using the comparison to their Tudor counterpart. Mix in modern situations such as arranged marriages, online dating, adultery, step children, miscarriages, gender reassignment, underage sex, possible suicide among other things, you'd expect this to a bit of a depressing affair but far from it as, even though there are parts that will make you angry and sad inside, there's a great deal of comedy as well. The same successful recipe used in Eve Ensler's "The Vagina Monologues".

There's the poignancy of the unforgivable situation that the teenage schoolgirl character is placed in and there's the great comedy monologues of the gender reassigned online dating woman who's not picky about her partners to the gold digger and the woman who's wronged by her man when he looks for a younger model.

I love theatre that entertains me and I can sit back and not think too deeply and I also like the other end of the theatrical market which really gives you something to think about and occasionally shocks, and this week both ends of the scale have been covered nicely. Needless to say this play is suitable for the over 14s due to some of the ripe language, which is part and parcel of the subject matter related by the six ladies in this all female play.

Only one word of warning though, if your ginger of hair and easily offended by "gingist" comments, think twice because there seems to be a theme with the six woman not being in favour of red heads. I wonder if Henry VIII was a redhead?

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