**
Here was a spirited actress on a mission. Using her height and wonderful profile to best advantage, Jules Craig decided she looked like Edith Sitwell, famous for saying that if you’re built like a greyhound, there’s no point trying to be a Pekingese.
In her turn, Edith Sitwell identified with Queen Elizabeth l, similarly unmarried and childless, and wrote two biographies of the Tudor monarch.
Occasionally, they looked – and dressed – the same. Craig’s one-woman show somehow tries to become all three strong women on the stage together, moving quickly back and forward to swap stories and sound patterns.
It’s a brave effort and there are some cracking one liners. Sitwell knew the power of words better than most and Queen Bess could rally the troops with the best of them but as a piece of theatre it felt unconvincing.
Perhaps it’s necessary to remember Sitwell’s slow-burning reputation as an avante garde philosopher and that perhaps some repartee needed to be read, not heard.
Jules Craig delivers her own lines with a great theatrical aplomb and perfect comic timing, but I wish her talents were put to better use.
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