Little Women at the Lowry Theatre, 8.4.2025 – No Gimmicks, Just Grace

There is a challenge inherent in adapting any much-loved novel for the stage, in that you have to give the book’s aficionados something they recognise and appreciate, whist at the same time ensuring there is enough drama to avoid merely providing moving pictures to accompany a safe stroll along familiar pathways – not least because not everyone in the audience will have read the book.

For those that haven’t, Little Women tells the story of the four March sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy – as they grow up in Civil War-era New England, navigating the challenges of family, love, ambition, and personal growth. With their father away serving in the war, the girls are raised by their strong and compassionate mother, Marmee, and each sister embarks on her own journey to find her place in the world.

There was comforting reassurance that this production – an adaptation by Anne-Marie Casey of Louise M. Alcott’s beloved novel, Directed by Loveday Ingram – would try to get under the skin of the novel before the action even started, with Ruari Murchison’s poetic set hinting that this would be more than a merely skin-deep treatment of the story.

Still, you would be forgiven if, like me, you spent the first few minutes wondering if both the writer’s and the director’s obvious reverence for the source material might keep the action slightly at arm’s length. The style of this introduction is clearly deliberate, however, acknowledging the literary nature of the story; and, as the piece develops, the openness and simplicity of the storytelling gently and subtly lure you in so that soon you’re completely captivated.

At the centre of this retelling is fledgeling author Jo March, brought to vivid life by Grace Molony. To suggest the other characters are in her orbit would be to do them a disservice, though, as this is very much an ensemble piece. So much so that to name the actors who impressed is simply to cut-and-paste the entire cast list (see below).

I’ll make one further exception to that catch-all to mention Belinda Lang’s wonderful performance as Aunt March, which would have been scene-stealing in a weaker production. I suspect on this showing that she has a huge range, so I don’t risk type-casting to say that if she has never played Lady Bracknell, she should.

The fact that some of the toughest events in the story happen offstage might appear to break the maxim of ‘show don’t tell’, but once you have started to care about these characters, the impact of these events is anything but expositional. Just two examples: the heartbreak of a neighbouring family’s bereavement; and the fear accompanying the arrival of news in the form of a telegram both affect the members of the March family very deeply. In turn, because we care about every character on stage, these impacts likewise affect us in a similar way.

The veracity of this production is such that even the slight hint of Irish in the on-stage accents seems a nod to the influence of immigration on New England, rather than a slip. If so, it is a detail so small yet so well-placed I’m surprised not to see any mention of an accent coach in the programme.

It struck me that, technically speaking, there was little about this production that would have seemed out of place in 1868, the year Little Women was published. Like other aspects of the storytelling, this is a strength rather than a weakness. In fact, I’d go as far as to say this approach could serve as a much-needed reminder that those who wilfully flood the stage with extraneous wizardry do so at the risk of diluting what is (at its best) an art that relies on creating connections between living, breathing people.

My assistant reviewer on the evening was my 11-year-old daughter, who highlighted (amongst many other strengths) how well certain stage effects worked, though I can’t go into too much detail for fear of lessening their impact. (And yes, it does feel a little weird to be avoiding spoilers, given the book was published over a century and a half ago). Asked to give the piece a mark out of ten, she gave a considered 9.6 – an incredible score, given how highly she rates the novel.

Having never read it myself, I can confirm you don’t have to have done so in order to be thoroughly entertained, moved, and transported by this highly engaging piece of theatre.


Cast:

Belinda Lang as Aunt March
Honeysuckle Weeks as Abigail ‘Marmee’ March
Jack Ashton as John Brooke / Professor Bhaer
Grace Molony as Jo March
Cillian Lenaghan as Theodore ‘Laurie’ Lawrence
Jade Kennedy as Meg March
Catherine Chalk as Beth March
Imogen Elliott as Amy March

Little Women plays at Salford’s Lowry Theatre until 12th April, with further dates until 21st June, visiting the Malvern Festival Theatre, the Devonshire Park Theatre in Eastbourne, Cardiff’s New Theatre, Sheffield’s Lyceum Theatre, His Majesty’s Theatre in Aberdeen, Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Richmond Theatre, Leeds Grand Theatre, and Theatre Royal Plymouth.