The Sewing Group review, Royal Court Upstairs

Who is Maggie and why has she joined The Sewing Group, a seventeenth century weekly women's meeting where the women only speak to discuss what colour threads to use on the pants they're stitching? It's silent work, but the irrepressible Maggie is soon dominating the space with her pattern choices and quilting challenges. When she suddenly asserts that she's gluten intolerant and cannot eat cake, the audience is as confused as her fellow sewers. Thankfully, E V Crowe's script has enough stretch on the seams to let the light in on Maggie's temporal tics. We are watching a story within a story.

The Sewing Group starts slowly. The first twenty minutes are a series of short, Amish-like, tableaux.  The snapshots become longer as Maggie becomes increasingly more twentieth century. When she alludes to an Oxbridge education, the intriguing behind-the-scenes scenario begins to emerge and fill the gaps in her story.  We find ourselves in a juxtaposition of women's lives then, and women's lives now. How reliable is either platform?

As Maggie, Fiona Glascott is compelling. Even when standing like a shadow in a corner of the box stage, she is vibrant with energy. In the earlier, slower, stages of this 80 minute play, her presence alone is enough to keep you engaged. In the later stages when her interactions with The Sewing Group become more complex, she ups the ante, pulling off a difficult character convincingly and sympathetically. Maggie is a woman for whom perfection and success are the only drivers. She is not conflicted. She knows what she wants and what she's willing to sacrifice. It is going through the motions of caring that she finds difficult.

In Conclusion: A strong cast supports Glascott in The Sewing Group, including John Mackay, Sarah Niles, Alison O'Donnell, and Nancy Crane. An additional treat was Dixie from Casualty. Jane Hazelgrove, having given up her stint at Holby on a Saturday night, is now in Chelsea, completing a great cast under Stewart Laing's expert direction.


Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, London SW1W 8AS    Run ends 23 December 2016