Robert Tanitch reviews The Distance at Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, Surrey.
Nora in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House walked out on her husband and two children in 1879. The sound of the door slamming behind her reverberated throughout Europe. People were genuinely shocked.
136 years later the taboo still remains. Mothers who abandon their children get a far worse press than men who abandon their children.
Deborah Bruce’s play was so popular at the Orange Tree last year that they have brought it back for another run.
Motherhood is difficult; and for some mothers too difficult. Lots of women are going to identify with Bea, who is convinced that her husband, a nice Australian, whom the children adore, will do a far better job at bringing them up than she will.
Her long-term female friends rally round to give her support and advice; but it is not the advice she wants to hear. They want her to return to Melbourne and get the children away from her husband.
They fail to listen to what she is saying. The first act, in which everybody is talking at the same time, is particularly well stage-managed and as exhausting to listen to as it must be to act.
Charlotte Gwinner’s revival has a good cast. Michelle Duncan is the deeply distressed Bea. Charlotte Lucas is the well-meaning godmother who is such a control freak that she drives everybody up the wall and is just the sort of friend you do not want to have around at a time like this.
Charlotte Emerson is another well-meaning friend but, with three children by three different husbands, and always in a flap, hardly the friend you would turn to for advice in any crisis.
Joshua Sinclair-Evans, making his stage debut, shows considerable promise as her son.
Deborah Bruce’s The Distance is funny and sad deserves a much longer shelf life after its run at the Orange Tree finishes.
To learn more about Robert Tanitch and his reviews, click here to go to his website
