Character comedian, Rosalie Minnitt follows in a proud comic tradition, creating a bonkers woman ‘from the past’ dealing with the usual challenges. You know, finding a husband, not being sent to an asylum, making it as an Oboist, taming rats, breaking and entering, that sort of thing. The straits might differ from those conjured by the likes of Joyce Grenfell, but there’s a comparably refined edge of lunacy to Minnitt’s Clementine.
Roughly set somewhere between Bridgerton and Pemberley, amidst a gentile society fit for Gotham city, Clementine negotiates a world where failure to marry by 27 is met with exile, and worse. She will stop at nothing to secure a husband.
The show’s rich seam of comedy stems predominantly from its blown up exaggerations of historic social customs and attitudes, and negotiating it with a very 21st century take on ‘period’ language. High energy from start to finish, Minnitt blasts the gags out relentlessly, enhanced with some cute multi-media content. The desperate fate of ‘spinsters’, for example, looks an awful lot like bustle-wearing women having fun on a tennis court.
Expect red flags in partners to be literal, and for increasingly bizarre fates for the men who have, to date, failed to make it to the altar. Also expect some of this to be put to song, and thankfully, she can sing. The compositions might not be due to set the heather on fire, but they serve. There’s also a touch of inoffensive crowd work, handled confidently and unlikely to flutter the hearts of the shy audience-member over-much. Most importantly, though, Minnitt has captured the right plummy, petulant tones to sell her character, and has a strong enough sense of timing to sell most of her schtick.
There is, however, a sense of the show running a little out of control as it barrels towards its conclusion. There’s no lack of ambition, just maybe a lack of experience in the storytelling art needed to hold together such such a vast, and barmy narrative. There’s a delightfully sharp simplicity to her work earlier in the show, observations on dietary and mating habits for example, which is sacrificed for a more so-so brand of the madcap.
However, Rosalie Minnitt is clearly a performer with talent, and plenty of potential. She succeeds in creating a memorable character, can make an audience laugh, and demonstrates that most valuable of creative assets: originality.
