Mark Gee Finch and Robert Jeffery in Fanny and Stella: The Shocking True Story at Above the Stag Theatre, London. Picture: Derek Drescher
Fanny and Stella: The Shocking True Story continues at the Above the Stag Theatre, London until 14 June.
Star rating: 4 stars ★ ★ ★ ★
In 19th century London, Ernest Boulton and Frederick Park were fairly well-to-do young men, with a taste for the theatrical. Their cross-dressing routine as Stella Clinton and Fanny Winifred Park was a popular touring attraction, but it was the couple’s private life that finally caught the attention of the law. Boulton and Park would often pose as women in real life and a list of known suitors prompted their arrest on the grounds of indecent behaviour.
Boulton and Park’s colourful story piqued public interest and as the pair came to trial, witnesses were discredited and opinion shifted in their favour. It took the jury less than an hour to arrive at a ‘not guilty’ verdict and the couple were acquitted, taking to the stage to offer dramatic readings of their ordeal.
Writer Glenn Chandler may be best known for creating the fictional detective Taggart, but he has actually created several shows seen in and around the London Fringe in the last few years. Invariably period pieces such as Boys of the Empire and Scouts in Bondage, Chandler also created a musical about the Cleveland Street scandal, which premiered at Above the Stag in 2011.
Fanny and Stella touches on similar territory to Cleveland Street – Victorian gay scandal – but Chandler’s adoption of a music hall framework allows the characters to lampoon themselves in their own medium. This is a ‘show-within-a-show’ scenario, and while original musical numbers by Charles Miller might not always feed the narrative, they do capture the spirit of the era and help clarify the music hall setting.
Chandler’s writing, based on court transcripts and contemporary news reports, offers a glimpse of life on the fringes of society in Victorian London, but there are plenty of contemporary asides to keep modern audiences engaged. The songs, delivered with gay abandon, feature eloquent titles such as ‘Sodomy On the Strand’; ‘Those Funny He/She Ladies’ and the hilarious ‘Has Anybody Seen My Fanny?’ The theme may seem vulgar but actually Chandler and Miller’s pastiches are perfectly pitched and crafted to zip the action along. An ode to motherhood in Act II introduces Boulton’s own mother, whose liberal testimony in support of her son’s lifestyle seems decades ahead of its time.
Designer David Shields – a regular at Above the Stag – has surpassed himself with a sumptuous, detailed set and costumes to rival any West End costume drama. Director Steven Dexter balances the music hall theme with some genuinely moving scenes, but generally this is a light-hearted affair that satirises the hypocritical Victorian morality code. The company reflects this from, Phil Sealey’s uproarious turn as the bellowing emcee of the Bermondsey Working Men’s Club to James Robert Moore’s turn as the bumbling playboy MP Lord Arthur Clinton.
The real stars here however are Robert Jeffery as Boulton/Stella and Marc Gee Finch as Park/Fanny. As a music hall double act, they are deeply reminiscent of a young Hinge and Bracket, gleefully throwing tart asides at each other and occasionally the audience, while obviously utterly reliant on each other’s friendship. Finch’s rather stoic Fanny, resilient and resigned to life, is the feed to Jeffery’s fickle, petulant Stella. The relationship between the two actors grounds the show and the vein of self-deprecating honesty that threads through the script only adds to the warmth of the characters.
Described as a play with songs, Fanny and Stella may not be a musical in the strictest sense but it certainly has a feel-good factor and a memorable score to rival many of its contemporaries.
Paul Vale
SHARE THIS POST:
Comments are closed.