The Massive Tragedy of Madame Bovary by John Micholson, Southwark Playhouse, the Large, 77 Newington Causeway, London until 11 January 2025,

4☆☆☆☆. Review: William Russell.

“A Christmas show with a difference.”

Flaubert must be turning in his grave. It helps to know the novel, one of those classics many people read at the age when they are ticking off great books and duly forget. But it is not necessary as her story unfolds with admirable clarity under Kirstie Davis's immaculate direction – well as immaculate as could be expected given her cast who play multiple roles with great skill, perform magic tricks, talk to the audience, and generally mess about. The Massive Tragedy is, in other words, a Christmas show with a difference, which is hilarious, risque and true at least to the novel in that Emma's plight as a woman in a man's world is told. Georgia Nicholson is a magnificent heroine all wiles and tantrums as she seeks a husband with money, finds he is, to put it bluntly, boring and then takes a lover who promises a more glamorous life, spends what money she has and her husband's money lavishly, runs up massive debts and comes to a sad end, although we are assured in this version the ending will be a happy. It opens with a couple of rat catchers arriving in Yonville, the town where Dr Charles Bovary practices, and which Emma longs to escape from for the bright lights of Paris. A moveable chest, a bucket or two,a couple of boxes with apples in them, a stuffed rat and one or two other props. Including a cane which materialises from – well go find out. In spite of the chaos created by Stephen Caavanagh, memorable as a blind man and Charles' mother among many other roles, Ben Kernow as various men who aspire to acquire Emma and Darren Seed as a handsome enough for Emma at first Bovary and gloriously repulsive as a ratcatcher somehow or other the novel survives. In one scene someone drinking what could be poison spits it out with some force, maybe one of the less successful jokes as it landed mostly in the lap of Susanna Clapp of the Observer who, up to then, appeared to be have a rather good time. Lesson one for all who review – never sit in the front row – is one she ought to have learned long ago. To read the book may be asking too much should you decide to go a quick look at Google should provide a useful synopsis. That done you will have an evening like no other which deserves to draw the town, a travesty inspired and - best of all - not an adult pantomime.

Cast

Georgia Nicholson - Emma Bovary

Stephen Cavanagh – Blind man, Bailiff, Marchioness, Homais, Sister Mary, Farm Hand, Footman, Hippolyte, Justin, Lhereux, Girard, Beadle, Cure, Charles' mother, Mayor Tuvache

Ben Kernow – Ratman 1, Rodolphe, Rouault, Dr Cavinet, Viscount

Darren Reed, Ratman 2, Charles Bovary, Mother Superior

Creatives

Director – Kirstie Davis

Designer – Marian Harrison

Movement Director & Choreographer

Lighting Designer – Simon Hutchings

Composer & Sound Designer – Dan Bottomley

Costume Designer – Yasmin Baird