FringeReview UK 2026

The Old Ladies

Producers Andrew Maunder and Neil McPherson for the Finborough Theatre.

Genre: classical, Costume, Drama, Fringe Theatre, Mainstream Theatre, Short Plays, Theatre, Tragedy

Venue: Finborough Theatre

Festival: FringeReview UK

Low Down

Review

“I really could have wept when the charlady came in with such a lovely surprise this morning… And it must be months since I had a fried sausage for breakfast! “ Somewhere in fictional Polchester three’s a crowd for one run-down house where older women eke out a residual gentility. Opening just a month before Emlyn Williams’ similarly noirish Night Must Fall, Rodney Ackland’s 1935 play The Old Ladies is based on Hugh Walpole’s 1924 novel. Developed with his enthusiastic approval, it’s revived at Finborough Theatre, directed by Brigid Larmour till April 19. Ackland modernised the late 19^th century setting to 1935; that’s where this production finds it. Streamlined slightly for 85 minutes straight through it lands ideally. An interval would seep tension.

The first London revival in 30 years, this is vintage Finborough. It’s brought by producer Andrew Maunder, whose previous co-production there last September was A. A. Milne’s The Truth about Blayds, like this play also featuring Catherine Cusack. Ackland (1908-91) has been consistently revived since the 1980s; particularly by the Orange Tree and Finborough, with major productions at the Almeida and National Theatre (Before the Party 2013, Absolute Hell 2018, after the Orange Tree’s pioneering revival). Yet it was the failure of this masterpiece in 1952, backed by a very disgruntled Terence Rattigan, that saw Ackland in virtual eclipse for 30 years. His seedily desperate world, not far removed from contemporary Patrick Hamilton’s, didn’t always find critical approval: but the audiences (as Rattigan’s Aunt Edna would admit) have been proved right. Eventually.

It’s also a rare play that gifts three older women actors an exclusive stage. The Finborough too are particularly noted for all-female productions.

New neighbour May Beringer (Catherine Cusack) is praising a single sausage, given to her by kindly resident Lucy Amorest (Julia Watson). May is nervous, prim and properly grateful almost to excess. Watson’s thoroughly pleasant Lucy, widow of a once well-known writer, talks of her continent-roving son Brand (probably named after Ibsen). Tea is boiled and brought. You can tick off their sedateness with chimes (seven on Christmas Eve).

It’s interrupted by abrupt resident Agatha Payne (Abigail Thaw), whom Lucy declares harmless but May is immediately terrified by. Thaw gleams with everything she wishes to possess, whether souls or goods. Disconcerting in her abruptness, and scorn of others’ beliefs, Thaw’s Agnes also manages stillness before the pounce. There’s an underlying theme of gypsy alienness here, extending to tarot and non-church-attendance. Neither Ackland nor even Walpole are known for their racism (particularly Ackland, who was half-Jewish and addressed anti-Semitism). Nevertheless Thaw inhabits this slightly stereotypical role with aplomb, and it’s cutting-edge for 1930s West End: “You’ve never had a lover, not with that face of yours, but I had plenty once.  I was handsome and did not care what I did. You’re a snivelling old scarecrow.  It would be a fine sort of man that would make love to you.” Thaw revels in the hissing of snakes.

When this develops to covetousness and an unwanted card-reading is imposed, May’s instincts seem proved right. Lucy is mildly in great expectations, though Agnes also scorns her wistful writing to a son who never answers. And all May has is a chunk of amber given by friend Jane, before she left St Leonard’s: “Jane said, when she gave it me, that it had some of her heart in it.” And it’s May’s heart giving a little trouble. St Leonard’s had become unpleasant. Hailing from Exeter, May seems forever skirting dingily genteel towns and cathedral cities.

Cusack brings to May the sincerity she brought to her previous role. Though here her May is infinitely more vulnerable. There’s a fragile dignity and frazzled decorum gradually stripped by circumstances. To Watson’s kindly, rational Lucy, slow to see how May’s introduction has tipped something, Cusack’s May is someone blown by the lightest gust. Watson counters this with admirable dispatch and confrontation when provided with Agatha’s true – and desperate – avarice. Even here though Lucy shows compassion, not fear.

This production and these actors exhale the class sterility that hedges about the genteel: it’s detailed, dingy and damning. Not to say claustrophobic, and with Polchester Cathedral looming over their lives, claustral too: Mark Dymock’s lighting shafts in Tenebrae with Christmas Eve. Max Pappenheim’s sound flecks one of Finzi’s Clarinet Bagatelles and noises off, including a voice: but the dominant wind whistles, billowing curtains.

Resident designer Juliette Demoulin has scored a characteristic horseshoe coup, in tripartite form. A small parlour for Lucy replete with bookshelves and kettle (with skirting rounding the whole), a rocking chair and card table upstage for Agnes; and left a rumpled bed for May. Carla Joy Evans’ exquisite period costumes (striking blue-greys a dominant note) and outrageous hats complete a bijou stage.

Classic 1930s noir, or even pre-noir, this psychological tragedy is more than a thriller (even more so than the rounded, knowing Night Must Fall), with its tattered moral fabric and desperate fading lives. It’s exquisitely rendered here. A small classic, if not on the scale of The Truth About Blayds, it’s yet another gem. And a must-see, if you can grab a ticket. First night was sold out.

Assistant Director Mark Diaz, Stage Manager Rebecca Tolberg, ASMs Anna Baldwin and Silvia Verzaro.

Producer Andrew Maunder, Production Photography Carla Joy Evans, Social Media Lal Yolgrecenli, Marketing Imogen Finlayson.

General Manager Tara Marricdale, Assistant General Managers Silvia Verzaro and Jaemin Yu, Assistant Resident Director Jillian Feuerstein, Cover Art Designer, Jillian Feuerstein.

Producer Andrew Maunder and Neil McPherson for the Finborough Theatre. Special Thanks to David Burnett.

Published March 27, 2026March 27, 2026 by Simon Jenner