Giles Woodforde is silenced by a melodic production of Little Voice

The Rise and Fall of Little Voice:

The Theatre, Chipping Norton

Loud-mouthed Mari isn’t just drunk when she returns home from the pub, she is comprehensively plastered.

Along the way she’s picked up seedy Ray, a talent scout for the local working men’s club, for “a bit of a cuddle”. It’s no wonder that Mari’s daughter Little Voice (so named because of her quiet manner of speaking) cowers upstairs in her bedroom.

Eventually Ray sobers up enough to hear voices floating downstairs from LV’s room – the voices of Judy Garland, Billie Holiday, Edith Piaf, Shirley Bassey, even Marilyn Monroe. For up in her room, LV listens obsessively to the classic LPs made by these singers, LPs lovingly collected by her late father. But LV not only listens, she is also a talented mimic, and has learnt how to imitate what she hears. Ray smells a potential profit in his pocket, and summons club boss Mr Boo round to take a listen.

Thus unfolds Jim Cartwright’s Olivier award-winning comedy-drama The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, now being staged in a brand new joint production by Chipping Norton and Greenwich theatres. Written in 1992, the play launched the career of actress Jane Horrocks, who originated the role of LV.

And what a demanding role it is, for it requires both acting and advanced singing skills. At Chippy, perhaps the most standout aspect of Sarah Moss’s performance as LV is her use of body language. At first she creeps downstairs only when her mother is out, tiptoeing nervously about as she tries to find a slice of bread that hasn’t gone mouldy. Whenever anyone does speak to her, she shrinks visibly with embarrassment.

Then comes the moment when she is finally persuaded to perform at the club: her body language is transformed as she gyrates with complete confidence through her act, her voice seguing effortlessly from Garland to Piaf to Bassey. Then, puff, the confidence vanishes again, and Moss leaves you wondering whether LV is close to insanity – the only hope seems to be a shyly developing romance with electrician Billy (a very sensitive performance from Oliver Burkill).

Meanwhile, Julie Armstrong sometimes risks over-egging the pudding as the drunken, totally self-centred, Mari. Clad in a succession of ever more unsuitable, ever shorter skirts, her best scenes involve her equally fulsome neighbour Sadie (Cally Lawrence, great fun). Strong in support are Jud Charlton and Shaun Hennessy, as boyfriend Ray and club boss Mr Boo respectively.

In the end, though, it’s Sarah Moss’s performance as LV that really lifts this production.

Giles Woodforde 4/5

* Continues until Saturday