Christopher Walker Reviews: Sylvia playing at Old Vic theatre

Packed with energy, Sylvia adroitly brings the suffragettes alive to a young and diverse audience, writes Christopher Walker.

Emmeline Pankhurst and her three daughters – Christabel, Sylvia, and Adela – were not exactly the kind of family you’d invite round for a few drinks and a laugh.

The suggestion that Sylvia “would have been a massive hip-hop fan” isn’t totally convincing. But, thanks to Zoo Nation, here at the Old Vic they put the ‘rave’ in rave

What the Pankhursts achieved deserves celebrating. They fought for years against an entrenched, tone-deaf, patriarchy and eventually won.

But in doing so they descended from peaceful protest into violence. Like Extinction Rebellion, their frustration against the Government’s failure to act, in the face of overwhelming logic, simply boiled over.

Sylvia’s success is largely due to two outstanding performances from Sharon Rose as Sylvia and Beverley Knight as her mother.

The two have powerful voices which truly soar to meet the best of Josh Cohen and DJ Walde’s music.

There are some fun cameos including Jade Hackett rapping as Churchill’s mother and the talented Verity Blyth as his wife.

Alez Gaumond is Kier Hardie in a clownish outfit that would befit the Brit Awards.

Heartthrob Sweeney convinces as Sylvia’s boyfriend, and the dancing is powerful, particularly by Steve Hutchinson and Bradley Charles.

The plot is broadly true to history. Broadly.

Winston Churchill (an amusing Jay Perry) was given a hard time by the Suffragettes, at one point whipped at Bristol railway station towards a coming train. But he did vote for women’s suffrage and God knows the world would be a worse place if that train had got him.

I am also not sure why Sylvia is singled out, as her contribution was considerably less than her mother’s, or Christabel’s (Ellena Vincent). Perhaps author Kate Prince thinks she’s hipper, or she likes her leftie policies.

These are not fully explored. Sylvia’s ‘Constitution for British Soviets” is overlooked, along with her calls to “abandon the parliamentary system,” and her bizarre obsession with the Emperor Haile Selassie and emigration to Ethiopia.

Watch Sylvia but don’t vote for her.

www.oldvictheatre.com/stage/event/sylvia

 

Picture: The Cast of Sylvia. Pictures: Manuel Harlan