page_on_stage | Sisters ~ [The Bread and Roses Theatre] ~

It’s the night before Abbie’s wedding and she couldn’t be happier – she has her dream dress, the perfect dinner planned, the venue she’s always hoped for, and in less than twenty-four hours the man of her dreams will be waiting for her at the altar. What could go wrong?

As it turns out - plenty! The arrival of Abbie’s sister Juliet puts a spanner in the works and suddenly Abbie’s big day gets a whole lot more complicated. Juliet thinks Abbie’s fiancé is a misogynistic Neanderthal, that she’s only getting married because it’s what she thinks society expects of her, and that she’s not quite over her ex-girlfriend. Juliet is loud, obnoxious, opinionated and blunt, but the worst thing is… maybe she’s right? But for all her talk Juliet has her own problems that she’s not dealing with and in a twenty-four-hour period secrets are revealed, long-standing feuds re-emerge, and tensions between the two sisters escalate to breaking point.

‘Sisters’ is a fun but poignant two hander about relationships. It centres on the different bonds between family and between lovers, and explores the complications of negotiating them both. Love doesn’t come with a handbook, but if it did you’d probably need ten bookshelves just to fit all the volumes. Here Natalie Audley’s play may not answer many of the questions the heart asks, but boy does it resonate with anyone who’s ever had to say ‘it’s complicated’. Charming, brutally honest, and very real, ‘Sisters’ is an hour-long show which packs a punch.

One hour shows can be notoriously difficult to pace but here Audley has done a fantastic job taking us seamlessly through the narrative in a way which feels very natural. There are moments when the energy dips and it takes a little while to get back into gear, but once it gets going it’s impossible not to get hooked!

Emily Ambler and Charlie Lees-Massey play Juliet and Abbie respectively and do a fantastic job of portraying two very different women who, although they may not always agree, ultimately love one another very much. Lees-Massey brings a frantic nervous energy to the role of Abbie and delivers some brilliant deadpan one-liners, while Ambler’s Juliet is sassy, funny, and impossible to dislike.

‘Sisters’ is a must-see for anyone who enjoys a good old-fashioned family drama!

Sisters ~ [The Bread and Roses Theatre] ~ | Review
★★★