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My
Brilliant Divorce (Apollo Shaftesbury)
Last month, the wonderful Alan Davies arrived in the West End with
a bittersweet, virtually one-man play, Auntie and Me, that
he played beautifully to his off-kilter, cheekily doleful strengths.
Dawn French, another telly comic who now follows him to Shaftesbury
Avenue with a one-woman play by Geraldine Aron, is, however, seriously
at odds with the character she is playing: she is so naturally funny
and ebullient that it's hard to find the pain in this sad tale of
a dumped wife confronting the loneliness of a solitary life.
| "French
makes the meandering dialogue always watchable, but the result
is that it's not always believable..."
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There
are also contradictions in Aron's uneven script: it simultaneously
makes jokes at the awfulness of the husband that make you, not to
mention French's character Angela, feel glad that she's rid of him,
but it also seeks to make you feel the kind of loss that drives
her to ring suicide helplines and set up lonely hearts dates.
Though
French makes this meandering monologue always watchable, the result
is that it's not always believable.
Her lightweight comic delivery - designed to deliver a gag on every
line - belies the tragedy of the situation, and dissipates whatever
dramatic tension the playwright is seeking to establish.
My
Brilliant Divorce is at the Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue W1
until 10 May. Ticket prices £10 - £35. Box office 020
7494 5070
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