Lost Soul at the Royal Court Theatre _320
PROVING again that Liverpool culture can take all shapes and forms, Dave Kirby’s Lost Soul has made a riotous return to the Royal Court as what must surely be one of the city’s great crowd pleasers.
Rapturously received from start to finish, little had changed since its 2007 debut, except references to Capital of Culture year and a certain mechanical spider.
Apart from that, most things remained the same, even the cast – except for one exception, more later – featuring the familiar Royal Court faces of Andrew Schofield, Eithne Brown and chums.
Lost Soul follows the fates of two close Liverpool couples, Donna and Smigger and Pat and Terry, who long for the 1970s of their youths and hit the town every Sunday night trying to regain it.
Holding it all together, without a doubt, was Lindzi Germain as Donna, bringing a humanity and pathos to even the most bawdy material – not that she was above a bit of that herself, but she worked it all exceptionally. Her mother hen figure brought out the best in the characters around her. She brought a tenderness to Andrew Schofield’s two-dimensional Smigger, whose biggest laughs tended to come from his obsession with his sister-in- law’s breasts or the content of his own trousers. Second only to Germain was Gary Bleasdale, taking the reins from Neil Caple, as the loveable but downtrodden Terry.
It takes a while for Eithne Brown’s Pat to come out from the shadows of the aforementioned breasts, but once she does she proves formidable. Her scene with sister Donna, on the couch with a bottle of wine, is a slice of real feelgood Liverpool theatre. There’s a flashback scene to their 1970s clubbing days that is great fun, and an inspired touch to a slow motion fight scene that brings something different.
It’s clearly a labour of love for all involved, and its impact on an audience can’t be underestimated.
