Calendar Girls

It’s plucky women who accept roles in Calendar Girls – and a sensitive, well-organised, director who guides them. Between actors and director there has to be implicit trust, confidence and total conviction. Those three things have shone through in every production I have seen of this inspirational play. Henry Lawson Theatre’s production is no exception.

The play is based on a real story. In 1999 members of the Women’s Institute in a town in Yorkshire posed nude for a calendar to raise money for Leukaemia research in memory of a husband who died from non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. Cleverly, the women covered their nudity with WI symbols – cakes, tea-cups, knitting … and what began as a joke resulted in raising over 1,000,000 pounds.

Posing nude was courageous for back in in 1999! Portraying them in a play in 2025 is just as brave. Even though posing nude doesn’t mean posing “naked”, getting some of your clothes off on stage isn’t easy, and hiding that nudity behind cakes and flowers demands clever organisation and timing.

Nicole Smith directs this production of Calendar Girls with care and compassion ensuring her actors pay tribute to the qualities of Tim Firth’s very real characters and the strong relationships they forge. There has to be a real sense of togetherness, a rapport that comes from collective support and respect.

Smith and her cast have obviously worked closely together to achieve that, and the sensitivity and precision needed for each of the “calendar girls” to achieve their “nude” pose with grace, decorum – and humour. There is warmth and love in this production. It shines in the faces – and tears – of the cast. It is there in the time and effort that has been put into the set and costumes and the planning, timing – and fun – in working out the difficult choreography for each “nude” photograph!

The set is not just a dour, old church hall. Designer Ian Fletcher has “refurbished” it in pastel colours and Jacqueline Felangue has decorated it with flowery bunting, gingham cloths and painted chairs.

Warmth and colour continue in the costumes, all of which enhance the personalities of the characters that are so explicitly defined in the script.

Holly-Leigh Prophet plays Annie, whose husband John is stricken with cancer. Prophet has the difficult task of keeping strong for her husband as he fights the disease, as well as showing her grief at his passing. Prophet finds all of that, buoyed by the warm support of the other women – and the love and gentle humour of her friend Chris, played by Jessica Hanlon.

Chris is a florist, who only joined the WI to win favour with her mother-in-law. Cakes and knitting aren’t her thing, but Chris is open and fun, and Hanlon makes this cheekily clear, in an upbeat performance. Whether supporting her friend Annie through her husband’s fight with cancer – or becoming the momentum behind the calendar – Hanlon’s Chris establishes the mood and tempo of the action.

Then there is Cora (Angela Pezzano) the single mum whose vicar father didn’t approve of her relationship with an African American. Cora’s still a bit of a rebel and Pezzano makes her just a bit wild, but rueful, tripping around the stage at times, pulling herself back at others, albeit with an apologetic grin or roll of the eyes.

Marie, played with exacting rigour by Cindy Partridge, is the authoritarian WI President.

Marie (who isn’t in the calendar even though Partridge would have liked her to be!) takes no prisoners and Partridge plays her as stern and controlling. Even in a badminton game she is unrelentingly dominating in her treatment her devout follower Ruth.

Ruth, played by Jenny van der Lem, is nervy and easily upset, and Van der Lem shows this in anxious, expressive reactions – especially when considering ‘going nude’ in front of a camera. Her reluctance is very real, but overcoming it gives her the courage to confront her husband’s young girlfriend, Elaine, in a short scene that gets a rousing reaction from the audience! Allegra Rodriguez and Leisel Hussy alternate as Elaine.

Rosie Crossing and Chris Snell are Jessie and Celia, the older “calendar girls”. Jessie is a retired teacher who has a sardonic sense of humour. Crossing makes her astute, observant, and a little wicked– and her mischievous asides are delivered with good comic timing. Celia is equally mischievous and Snell relishes showing her “devil may care” attitude and brazen sense of fun.

Supporting the women are Darren Gibson as John, and Stehen McCabe as Chris’s husband Rod. Mark Prophet plays a sassy sales promoter and Nash Burton and Blake Reeves alternate as the photographer Lawrence. Jacqueline Felangue appears as a guest speaker at a WI meeting and the judge at a cake-making competition.

The whole company’s commitment to the play is warming. All the proceeds from the sale of their program and tea lights of Hope go to the Cancer Council. Those tea lights, which glimmer in the hands of the cast at the end of the play as a silent tribute to those lost to that insidious disease, will become a lasting memory of this tenderly touching production.

Carol Wimmer