Women on Top
Theatre On The Steps
Bridgnorth.
28/2 /15
It isn’t a lot that gets Loveshrewsbury.com to leave its home. But every now and again if there is something worth seeing it does no harm. Gill Jordan’s one woman show, “Women on Top.” proved to be one such show.
Gill shot to fame in the West midlands when she introduced her character, house wife Doreen Tipton. She became an internet sensation Now with over one million three hundred thousand hits and a huge fan base, Doreen has found her way into the cultural psyche of us all.
But tonight’s show was not just about Doreen. Flooding from the pen of David Tristam Ms. Jordan skilfully delivered a plethora of characters each as different and individual as a cast of thousands might produce, but no, it was all one woman. One very very funny woman.
Exploring the concept of great British woman, the audience were introduced to a wealth of identifiable characters. Warning the assembled crowd at the start to turn off the political correctness ap on their phones . The mood was set and the show delivered gem after gem.
David Tristam’s pen is sharp and witty and added with the brilliance that is Gill Jordan, the results are formidable. There is something so British about identifying our weaknesses and then exploiting them as laughing material. Satire is so much more potent than deliberate criticism. People see what the problems are and can still laugh out loud. People want to be entertained and how better to be so, than to have a great collective laugh at our foibles.
Splitting between live action and video the show ran at a breathless pace and the GPM or gag per minute rate was stunning. There aren’t many shows that produce literal eye watering laughs but this is one as audience members were seen drying their eyes and gulping for air before the next laugh arrived.
It was the great Konstantin Stanislavsky that introduced the idea of total immersion into character and thus spawned the method actor. It was Gill Jordan who demonstrated it to perfection tonight, far better than so many of the top so called Hollywood Greats, and the speed in which she changed character was awesome. Every character so perfectly found and so beautifully portrayed.
The show is brilliant the cleverest piece of theatre this reviewer has seen for a while. There is something highly amusing about the way we act and behave. There is something even funnier about seeing it portrayed and exposed warts and all.
The secret of presenting a successful one woman show is to fool the audience into thinking there are so many more of you. Ms. Jordan has turned that into a wonderfully powerful tool.
To locate the secret of the show’s success isn’t as easy as one might presume. One could cite the wonderful acting and leave it at that but when the writing, the technical language and the direction are all just so brilliant too one becomes aware that you don’t simply watch a show you are watching a masterclass on the entire genre of one person shows and a realisation that it was all just brilliant.
Time is long overdue for both David Tristam and Gill Jordan to be household names, but that time is coming. British TV has been following the safe formula for far too long. When that time comes as come it will,it is we as West-Midlanders all, that will boast, “Gill Jordan….oh yes she’s one of ours!” and how proud we all will be!
This is a five star review.
Owen Lewis
Sofia is a successful playwright living in Shrewsbury. After graduating from Wolverhampton University in theatre. Sofia went on to become an actor and film maker. Her first play was published in 2015 and her plays have been seen all around the world. She is also the instigator of the popular concerts, The Sound Of Shrewsbury Folk. She has been writing with loveshrewsbury for 13 years and loves Theatre Severn and all she sees there.
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