Harold and Maude

When I saw the film back in the early 70's it instantly became one of my favourites and a good few years ago now I bought and read the Colin Higgins' script, a delight in its own right. The chance to see the play on stage with Sheila Hancock was just too good to miss ... 

To be honest, when the show started it had all the hallmarks of a low budget amateur production but curiously, as it progressed this became part of its charm. In the end, I was pretty well won over. Sheeila Hancock is magnificent and just so right for the part of the eccentric Maude. We are never quite sure how much she tells us is true but somehow it never seems to matter, the stories stand alone. The play itself does suffer somewhat from its age, I was never quite sure whether the messages it contains were a bit twee at the time or whether time has made them so - I suspect a bit of both, the messages are still good but they are couched in phases that now seem too pat and simplistic.

Good performances all round, especially from Joanna Hickman and Samuel Townsend but it is really Sheila Hancock's performance that carries it - lovely to see an older female character played with such confidence and power.

I saw this on Sheila's last day but the show has been extended so there is still a chance to get there and you'd get to see Linda Barlow who I'm sure will be fabulous ...