Mrs Beeton Says – Redgrave Theatre, Bristol

Picture: Craig Fuller Photo

Mrs Beeton Says was performed at the Redgrave Theatre, Bristol.

Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩

‘As with the commander of an army, so it is with the mistress of the house.’

Penned in 1859, these words were to provide women with a route map towards domestic bliss, and greatly broadened horizons, for a hundred years and more.

They were written by Isabella Beeton at the tender age of 23, in what was to become one of the best-selling tomes of all time: Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management (two million sold and still counting).

Now her story has been told, her legacy examined, in an evocative new musical, commissioned by the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School from composer and lyricist Eamonn O’Dwyer, and staged at the neighbouring Redgrave Theatre.

O’Dwyer, already with credits as a composer for RSC (Comedy of Errors) and the National Theatre Studio (Flesh and Bone), has been holding workshops with the students for the last two years. The result is a pleasing professional edge to a production helmed by Olivier Award-winning director Paul Clarkson.

One fascination right from the start is the examination of the social restraints on women at the time – food and drink for writer Helen Watts who provides a book not shy of exploring Beeton’s tragic early death at the age of 28, probably from syphilis caught from her philandering husband Sam.

Her life story is cleverly used by both O’Dwyer and Watts to introduce key elements of her household advice – mainly in the kitchen but over matters of ethics as well – that shaped the identity of the middle classes of the time, and some below stairs as well. I have my doubts though that her guidance on the wedding night found its way into the 1,112 pages.

All this is set to an attractively gentle score, played by an on-stage string trio, and an array of songs.

The eight-strong cast was made up of BOV Theatre School students, with Beshlie Thorp engagingly in the limelight (but not stealing it) as Mrs Beeton, Jonathan Oldfield as her charming but vacillating husband, and the other six members dividing their time between 14 other roles and a sort of Greek Chorus responsibility.

Finally, one element of the production Mrs B would certainly applaud is the strong presence of women among the creative team, notably the filigree green staircase design by Bronia Housman and Pamela Rudge’s splendid musical direction. Mrs Beeton rules!

Jeremy Brien