There are some good jokes in Peter Quilter’s new play and Maureen Lipman knows how to land them. “Some do cocaine, I do cabaret,” she shrugs as Allegra, whose singing is annoying her neighbours. “The ironic thing is it’s the cabaret that gets up people’s noses.”
Allegra’s spontaneous serenades – at the butcher’s, the bakery, the hairdresser – are increasingly unwelcome in her village. Waiters march her out of restaurants, and even the local choirs have banned her. Her brother Ronen (John Middleton), worried for her health, employs a Czech care worker to make sure she eats. Every now and then Lipman gets a twinkle in her eye, a shimmy in her shoulders, and launches into a tune.
