Call Girls is a new play by James Carrick that explores the relationships and troubles of a group of elderly widows living in the Beach Haven Resthome in a small English seaside town.
They are an eclectic bunch. Angela (Ayesha Heble) is a former accountant who on the surface is very sensible and likes to keep the peace. Pauline (Kate Birch) is an artist and self-proclaimed ‘creative’ but she’s divorced and a terrible snob. She is also constantly squabbling with Ivy, a hilariously irascible pensioner who has a grown up daughter. Rounding off the four is Rose (Ami Coster), a sweet but ditzy lady who seems to be losing her memory and has an estranged daughter.
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Looking after them is Sarah (Rebecca Wright) who owns the rest home but who is saddled with debt and struggling to keep up with the increasingly demanding regulations imposed on the enterprise by an unpleasant council compliance officer called Jonathan Leonard (Duncan Preston).
Facing imminent closure of the place, the residents try to help Sarah by organising various fundraising efforts, but even with the help of a TV personality called Philip Dinkle (Oliver Roberts) they still don’t have quite enough. In the end, Ivy’s daughter Kirsty (Alexander Chrystal) and her boyfriend Tim (Aidan Allen) convince the ladies to set up an adult chat line service and they start bringing in revenue.
This play is very funny with a mix of delightful farce and sexual innuendo coupled with touches of real drama concerning the challenges of elderly people living in reduced circumstances and the people who try and exploit their vulnerability. There is also a very clever takedown of media sensationalism and even cancel culture.
It takes quite some time to reach the ‘call girl’ part of the story, but it is comedy gold as each of the characters tries and initially fails to get it right. Eventually though they warm to their roles and Rose in particular takes it on with relish. The sexual predilections of the clientele run to the more esoteric and let’s say ‘dependency oriented’ side of roleplaying which provides a hilarious dynamic to the story.
The cast of the show work together very well and manage to produce some very memorable characters and deliver some saucy one-liners with aplomb. Aiden Allen and Alexandra Crystal played multiple characters with great versatility as did Jimmy Carrick who, curiously, has a similar name and look to the playwright. I wonder, with my tongue firmly in my cheek if they might be related?
All up, Call Girls is a wonderful and cheeky romp full of twists and turns, that is well worth going to see.
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CALL GIRLS
17-26 October 2024
