The Roaring Girl

The Roaring Girl is the first in a season of plays at The Swan featuring strong female protagonists. Written in the first decade of the 17th century, The Roaring Girl is Mary Frith aka 'Moll Cutpurse'. A notorious pickpocket and fence who dressed like a man, smoked a pipe and did as she pleased. The play itself has a fairly thin plot and a myriad of sub-plots which makes for an episodic and somewhat confused evening. Sebastian wants to marry Mary but his father disapproves. In order to change his father's mind he pretends to be hopelessly besotted with Moll Cutpurse in the hope that his true beloved will seem like a good choice in comparison. Meanwhile various young dandies are pursuing married women for money and entertainment. In the midst of all this, Moll acts as a facilitator, moving in and out of the other characters lives as oppose to being the centre of all.

Lisa Dillon's Moll is a swaggering, confident, cross dressing philosopher who affects the lives of all she meets. There is able support from the brilliant Lizzie Hopley as Mistress Gallipot and Kier Charles as Laxton. However, these gallant performances weren't able to save a production that was ultimately a bit of a mess. It was disjointed and the flow was badly hindered by the band used for the transition between scenes, they felt so out of place that they really jarred and the final 'celebratory' dance was way too long. Whilst one would not be expecting subtlety and nuance from such a play – it was all a bit too panto and a good amount of the story telling was lost. This would benefit from being about 20 minutes shorter, a lot tighter and better paced.

Sorry to say then that this wasn't one of my favourite nights at The Swan.