Calendar Girls is  funny, rich in character and storyline, with moments of intense emotion.

Theatre Review

Production: Calendar Girls

Writer: Tim Firth (Based on the motion picture by Juliette Towhidi and Tim Firth)

Director: Rachel Ditor

Starring: Shirley Broderick, Anna Galvin, Aslam Husain, Shawn Macdonald, David Marr, Jane Noble, Wendy Noel, Lisa Norton, Linda Quibell, Kerry Sandomirsky, Colleen Winton

Running: Until February 26, 2012

Venue: Stanely Industrial Alliance Theatre

Reviewed by Taryn Hubbard (Vancouver)

A charming story of a group of women who belong to the Women’s Institute in Yorkshire England, Calendar Girls is a production that cleverly brings together themes of age, sexuality, illness, and friendship.

Between riveting slideshows about mysterious vegetables such as broccoli, or teaching tai chi out of a step-by-step book, the sassy members of the WI are clearly more committed to the friendships found in the group than to the stuffy activities that take place at meetings.

But when Annie’s (Wendy Noel) husband John (Shawn Macdonald) gets diagnosed with leukemia, the women decide to honour John by raising enough money from their annual calendar sales to buy a £500 chair for the hospital. Going against the usual Yorkshire landscape-themed calendar, these daring women decide to show off exactly what makes them the women of the WI and pose nude in a variety of different poses—with baking, knitting, jam, and tea sets. The calendar is an instant international success and all of a sudden this quaint women’s group is faced with the pressures of fame.

The high-energy ensemble cast is fantastic. The scene when the women are shooting the calendar—which is in the nude, not naked as Chris (Anna Galvin) likes to remind them—was one of the best in the play. The actors, who actually did bare all, looked like they were having a lot of genuine fun. 

Calendar Girls is a great show. It’s funny, rich in character and storyline, and also has moments of intense emotion. It is a great example of how women of a “certain age” can subvert agist stereotypes and love their bodies no matter how “old” they may be.

Calendar Girls runs at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Theatre now until Feb. 26.

Written by :

Taryn Hubbard