Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Katherine Vince.
What secrets women hold in their hearts into which even a two and half year boy can feel intrigue in and yet by the time they have grown in men will have them scratching their heads at in perplexed and agonising astonishment at.
The dark secrets of how a woman always looks perfectly flawless at whatever time of day are revealed by Feral Foxy Ladies in their production of I Got Dressed…a play in which the demands of the world of beauty and make-up are explored and into which dangerous prospects of the regime require the necessity of owning an earring holder the size of breeze block, of the agony in which choosing between four different shades of concealer is in itself an art form and how dressing up takes on a whole new meaning as a spectator sport.
Katherine Vince takes the audience through this aspect of a world in which near 50 per cent of the population will never quite fathom and in which two young boys, the nephews of the real-life Clare Stone to whom Katherine Vince portrays, are the bravest and most enlightened chaps of the day.
The letters in which Clare writes to her bank, in response to how even living within her means can suddenly find just popping for the essentials can suddenly ring up the kind of bill more associated with a Premier League footballer’s wage packet and to her nephews to whom not everything should be shared lest they grow up not taken with the mystery and magnitude of why women go to such lengths, are in themselves pieces of art. They are insights into the world of the cosmetic industries and the economy of scale to which a breed of class is born; it is no wonder the play starts with a sublimely misappropriated quote from Karl Marx, the joke being established early on.
Through the exhaustive process of the right clothes in which the allure is staged and the utter carnage of the make-up counter in the home, Clare seeks to enlighten and she does with flying colours. Not everyone can be brave like a two and half year old but they can certainly have their eyes opened in style.
A hugely entertaining piece of theatre which would go down very well across the country, not just at the Edinburgh Festival, I Got Dressed…is a sheer delight.
Ian D. Hall