Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Charlotte Gallagher.
English Literature is awash with the heaving bosom of the heroine being swept off her feet by the man she thought was broken, dangerous, a heart ruled by anarchistic ritual and yet you won’t find that many books of the romantic nature inside Britain’s book shops, not unless you delve deeply into the classic section and realise that all those writers of a by-gone age knew something that that modern audiences, so full of sophistication and drowning in scepticism, have forgotten; that sex and romance sells like almost nothing else available to read.
Charlotte Gallagher takes the romance book to heart in the guise of Carlotta de Galleon-A Fool for Love, she turns the pages over with deep filled desire, she explains the practise, the almost unquenchable ceremony of expectation that comes with the novel being decried as trashy by some, held up as a pinnacle of great truth by others and with more books being sold by the writers of such works of fiction, an almost inescapable urge to dissect the books down to their component parts.
It is only when this is done, when the engaging Ms. Gallagher reminds the audience of some of English Literature’s classic books are steeped in the whirlwind of romance, that the dawning of understanding is made clear, that the romance is not the point. It is drawing out of women’s sexuality and identity that makes it feminism of high order; not perhaps the one taught across the board but one which arguably suggests that it is women who know just where the fine line of using sex as weapon and the power it holds and then men, perhaps quite rightly, are just the vessel in which it is sometimes delivered.
With outstanding thought and argument, Charlotte Gallagher relishes and teases the moment of absolute reveal, the cynical heart in some, the flush of excited youth in others, all are represented in the sea of romance and sex, all have their own thought on why sex sells, especially in so much numbers. Ms. Gallagher’s performance is a dynamic piece of theatre, literary criticism and slight improvisation in which she shows that anybody van be the hero of their own fantasy and sometimes of someone else’s imagination.
A class act, a star turn, Charlotte Gallagher will blow your mind.
Ian D. Hall