My Brilliant Divorce

I USUALLY find one-person plays hard going, but Dillie Keane's great stage presence and comic timing made My Brilliant Divorce an enjoyable evening at the Devonshire Park Theatre.

Geraldine Aron's script was not without its flaws, but projecting the pain of a middle aged woman's divorce after she is abandoned by her husband for a younger woman provided plenty of pathos and some biting black humour.

It was a good vehicle for the talented Keane to portray a hypochondriac who is also plagued by bitterness and loneliness. And she gave some amusing impersonations of her shifty solicitor, a bizarre date, a tactless sex-shop assistant, her unfeeling husband and his succession of bimbos.

When the play enjoyed a sell-out season in the West End, including an Olivier nomination, Dawn French played Mrs Angela Kennedy Lipsky. But the role was made for Keane, a founding member of Fascinating Aida and regular on Grumpy Old Women.

Some of the jokes were weak and a thin plot relied too much on evoking self-pity. But Keane made full use of her props that included a Scotty dog called Axl and a telephone which enabled us to hear the voices of her unsympathetic mother and help line councillor.

Tim Luscombe's direction helped Keane revel in self-deprecation and humiliation as she mimed an unsuccessful attempt at intercourse and the trauma of buying a viabrator.

Tony Flood