This past Wednesday night I attended the opening night of Dolly Stainer of Kew Cottages and despite the fairly amateurish set-up of the theatre the show started off ok.

The performance of the actress playing Dolly was strong whilst the other two faced with the task of playing multiple characters without costume changes seemed to struggle.

Opening night problems are to be expected but all in all, this show offered little by way of anything entertaining or even poignant (despite its continual attempts). The unpolished rear projection effect in this show left much to be desired. And the story to those unfamilliar prior to the show, would've been near to impossible to follow. In the post show Q and A awkwardness was rife as the directorial, writing, producing, acting team struggled to answer all but the most basic questions about the play. Eg. What performance Style is the play? "Um well, uhh..I'd say it's naturalistic..but also non naturalistic..so to answer your question..it's a combination." For those able to ask a question next time I advise you NOT to ask if "Dolly was nuts?" this does not go down well with the artistic director of the show who for the record "IS NOT DRUNK OR STONED"

I rate this show 3/10.

Reviewed by: Brendan J Williams

Dolly Stainer Of Kew Cottages was the best play I've ever seen. As someone who has sufrers from mental problems in the past I found it to be very realistic and not disrespectful. Having had many problems as a result of my mental dificulties it was good to see a play that was about such problems. I lvoe Dolly Stainer Of Kew Cottages and recomend it to everyone. GO DOLLY!

Reviewed by: Megan Cheeseman

I’m very easily unimpressed. So, when some friends who are involved in the Soul Theatre production of Dolly Stainer at La Mama, offered me a complimentary ticket on condition that I review the play, I was a little reluctant, until I was told that I could write pretty much what I liked as long as it was reasonably intelligent and considered. The evening started unimpressively enough, with the drawing of the traditional La Mama door prize – I didn’t win. Thoroughly disgruntled, I settled back to enjoy the performance as little as possible, beyond the bare minimum needed to make a show of critical fairness. Dolly Stainer, in its current form, is not an easy play for either the cast or the audience. The play covers almost the whole of Dolly’s life, from her first admission to Kew Cottages to her death in a little over an hour. It is performed by a cast of three players; Frances Hutson as Dolly herself and Gregory Ross and Liz McColl as all the doctors and nurses who cared for her during her prolonged stay at Kew cottages. Frances Hutson in the lead role had to be convincing as a disturbed five year old child at the beginning of the play and as an old woman at the end, with all the various stages of development between. She achieved this, largely through the use of movement and gave a well-developed and overall convincing performance. As the doctors and nurses in Dolly’s life, Gregory Ross and Liz McColl had to portray a succession of characters – at least three in Gregory Ross’ case, more in Liz McColl’s. These roles also had to carry a significant burden of exposition, particularly in the opening scenes. Unfortunately, some of this exposition was of the quality parodied in the first scene of Tom Stoppard’s The Real Inspector Hound – for example, Liz McColl’s emotional outburst early in the play on the overburdened state of the Kew Cottages idiots’ asylum. The on-stage action is supplemented with a sound designed by Carl Pannuzzo and back projected video produced by Clare Cahill and Fiona Bavinton. The sound proved particularly helpful later in the play when, perhaps a little obviously, Pannuzzo slipped in popular music to indicate the era we had entered. The video was at times atmospheric – supplementing the on-stage action with emotively surreal imagery and on one or two occasions, took the action outside the confines of Kew Cottages. Perhaps because of the nature of the material and the limitations of the performance space, this production has some unfortunate distractions – frequent entrances and exits on the part of Gregory Ross and Liz McColl, an operating system play/pause button which remains visible in the back projection between video segments. With their help, I managed to finish the evening as unimpressed as I began it. But that’s just me. While I came out of the theatre relieved that at least the production hadn’t slipped into exploiting the obvious farcical possibilities in attempting to tell such an epic story with such a small cast, others were impressed and moved by the play, even inspired to get interested in the history of Kew Cottages. I’d rate it somewhat higher than 3 out of 10.

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Reviewed by: Gummo Trotsky

I have to agree with the unfavourable aspects of the other reviews. When an audience unfamiliar with a plays plot finds it nearly impossible to follow along, the play is a failure. Unforunately, Dolly Stainer of Kew Cottages is one such play. Perhaps the most confusing aspect of this production was the fact that Gregory Ross and Liz McColl played multiple characters. Often, each actor's characters were similar enough that the audience simply did not realise it was supposed to be a different character. At one point, I was left wondering why the nurse who had been Dolly's friend for years was pretending not to know her. At another, I was confused about the way the doctor suddenly developed a limp and a camera. The media projections were, at best, atmosperic. However, atmosphere mixes with plot-propelling-detail like water with oil, and all too often we, as an audience, were thoroughly spooked but without any idea as to what had just happened. And admirable as Frances Hutton's acting like a five-year-old was, when asked to accept her as actually being one, I for one thought "this is a bit too much." Still, it's better than watching grass grow.

Reviewed by: Brendan J. Kelly