Cured Review: Laugh-Out-Loud Comedy with a Powerful Message

Rating: * * * * 

This was a surprising success.  It was hilariously funny with a serious undertone.

Seriously, I have been thinking about the moral dilemma for the last few days; chatting to family and friends and work colleagues about it. Isn’t this the essence of a brilliant play?

Why do we assume – incorrectly as Clark points out, that people are not happy with their lives and to fit a social and personal conscience we assume people need fixing! As it was adeptly pointed out in the play… they don’t and what gives us the right to think and so arrogantly believe, they do and want this!

Clark wrote this play pre pandemic giving him plenty of time to perfect.  It was a long time in the making and to be fair, thoroughly worth the weight. Clark along with Director Robert Softley Gales delivered a thoroughly enjoyable and highly entertaining piece of theatre.

All actors portrayed their respective roles well, each playing a part that led to the collective success of the play. Their comedic timing must be applauded as it was en-pointe.  It was laugh-out-loud funny yet vulnerable, endearing whilst shocking however it was utterly entertaining from start to finish.  This was definitiely not a play where you are thinking ‘oh just get on with it’ or ‘hurry up and finish’ it was fabulous and utterly deserving of its standing ovation on press night.

Totally worthy of a mention was the set design by Olivia du Monceau. It was simple yet highly effective and easily transited between scenes enriching the already slick production.

This is a play NOT to be missed.  For tickets please contact the box office either in person or by telephone 0151 709 4321. Show runs until 6th June. 

Cast:

Pauline Daniels, Maisy Gordon, OliverMawdsley, JulieMac, Sophie Adoza Moore, Reese Pantry and Stephen Smith.

Synopsis:

For some, a holy pilgrimage to Lourdes is all prayers, candles and proper holy contemplation. For this mad bunch of disabled Scousers, it’s bevvys, mucking about and getting off with each other… and definitely no bleeding miracle cures!

Welcome to Cured — a proper boss, foul-mouthed, laugh-out-loud comedy from local writer and comedian Laurence Clark.

When cocky wheelchair-using lad Connor clocks sharp-tongued Rose in the benefits assessment waiting room, he thinks: “Right, I’m in there.” So, he blags his way onto a subsidised Catholic charity coach trip to Lourdes just to try and cop off with her. What follows is terrible hymns, nicked wine, one very brassed-off nun, dodgy miracles and enough Scouse lip to make St Bernadette herself go “Ey, behave!”

Join four young pilgrims as they take on nonsense rules, embarrassing exes, new fancies, hidden fancies, and the big question nobody ever asks: do disabled people actually want to be fixed, or are we sound as we are, ta?

With more Everton hats than you can shake a stick at, Cured is a two-fingered salute to pious crap, a massive love letter to life and proof that mates, a decent snog and a cheeky pint of cheap plonk when Sister Mary’s not looking can cure more than a plastic bottle of holy water in the shape of the Holy Virgin.