Little Women, the famous novel by Louisa May Alcott, is certainly having its moment in the sun after Greta Gerwig brought it to our screens recently with a stellar cast including Meryl Streep, Florence Pugh, Saoirse Ronan and Timothée Chalamet.
And now the classic text is being adapted for the stage by Faraway Productions and coming to Oxford Playhouse next week, in what promises to be a vibrant, energised, multi-generational and empowering piece of theatre thanks to writer Anne-Marie Casey.
‘we hear the occasional sob, and lots of laughter but it’s the gasping I love the most’
And here to tell us all about it is one of the four March sisters Beth, played by Catherine Chalk, who’s enjoying every second of the national tour with the ‘close knit’ cast which includes Belinda Lang and Honeysuckle Weeks.
“We all believe in the show because the writing is so brilliant, the story is a classic and it’s a great cast to work with. It’s very fast paced and moves quickly, but all the key moments that people love are in there,” she says.
“Which means everyone in the audience recognises something of themselves in the characters, and while the girls choose their own paths, Anne-Marie doesn’t shy away from the ugliness of growing up; the scrapping, chasing and fighting. It’s realistic to its core.”
“So we hear the occasional sob, and lots of laughter but it’s the gasping I love the most, usually from people who come in blind and haven’t come across Little Women before.”
Little Women is of course the coming-of-age novel, loosely based on Louisa May Alcott‘s own life, and written in the 1860s, which follows the four March sisters Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy from childhood to womanhood while their father is away during the American Civil War.
“It’s fundamentally the story of Jo, and the play is seen through her eyes. But you also see a lot more of the older generation alongside the four girls,” Catherine explains. “Belinda Lang plays Aunt March, while their mother Marmee allows the girls a bit more freedom, so it’s as as much about the generational relationships, as the ups and downs of the girls lives.
“Anne-Marie also eloquently weaves all the characters and stories into the script while letting each personality shine and have their moment in the spotlight,” Catherine says, “which means she delivers all the characters and pivotal events brilliantly.”
As for her own character Beth, historically the angelic one who dies tragically early, Catherine says that she is “eternally kind, sweet, caring and dear and yet she never feels that she’s good enough, so when I approached this character I thought about how Beth has less of a voice than the others, which is still so relatable today – being a bit different and not fitting in.
“And that’s what Beth says when she’s dying: “I have a feeling that it never was intended I should live long. I’m not like the rest of you. I never made any plans about what I’d do when I grew up,” and it’s heart-breaking, to not fit into societal norms, to not be a go-getter, so there is a darker element at play there.”
Hugely looking forward to coming to Oxford Playhouse from Tuesday 27 to Saturday 31 May, Catherine, who played in The Circle there last year, says she can’t wait to return. “Oxford is such a great city so we are all really excited about spending the week there, even if I do have to die on stage every night,” she laughs.
Little Women is at Oxford Playhouse from May 27-31. Book here https://www.oxfordplayhouse.com/events/little-women
