Mary Morgan is a would-be big-time singer whose promising career takes a nose dive into stripping and tribute act vocals in a sleazy pub in Brighton’s Lewes Road.
In this gem of a play by Steve Barrey, Mary, played by BBC presenter Allison Ferns, is a feisty butterfly unable to spread her wings in this sad and funny monodrama. When an overnight stay to appear on 1960’s top tv talent show Opportunity Knocks leads her younger brother to a tragic death, her ambitions seem at an end. And so Mary devotes many years to looking after her remaining brother, and then her mother’s descent into dementia. Lying to her devoutly Catholic mother Patricia that she doesn’t want a career in show business, she embarks secretly on a journey through stripping while impersonating musical divas.
This is the emotional pivot of this 70-minute show, and Ferns proves entertaining and engaging as she gives us Tina Turn On, Shirley Sassy and Busty Springfield with joyous and belting bursts of their greatest hits. It’s a career going nowhere and Ferns is brilliant at the naïve enthusiasm, sharp sarcasm and thinly disguised unhappiness that seems to be this Proud Mary’s lot in life. Barrey has two more tricks up his sleeve. After her mother’s death, Mary’s estranged father, now a rich club and bar owner in Spain, asks her to join him in the business. And that’s where we find her throughout the play – packing for Spain, casting aside frocks and bad memories into bin bags.
And the final twist? Well that would be a spoiler – let’s just say that the ending is open to interpretation and a path to happiness or further tragedy.
Jordan Langford’s direction has Ferns playing straight out at us- indeed involving us in the action from time to time. This one-night only performance deserves a longer outing with a few tweaks to the script and a fundamental change to the lighting. When she forays into our midst Ferns stands in the shadows caused by blazing spotlights directed straight at us. It’s a technical error and by my 5th time of temporary blindness I got annoyed to say the least.
Flutter Bye was at Brighton’s Ironworks Studios.
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