It all starts completely innocuously with doctor’s wife and brand new mother Catherine Givings keeping herself out of the way when her husband’s patients come to consult him in the eponymous room upstairs.
She has no idea what goes on behind the locked door where Jason Hughes’ aloof Dr Givings and his matter-of-fact, middle-aged nurse Annie (Sarah Woodward) administer the latest therapies, made possible by the advent of electricity, to their unhappy patients. Until, that is, her curiosity is aroused when Flora Montgomery’s Mrs Daldry emerges happy and glowing after her treatment for hysteria – and keeps on coming back for more.
Natalie Casey is delightful and touching as the neglected Catherine who has no milk to feed her new baby, whilst Edward Bennett turns in a paroxysmal comic performance as an artistic male patient who gets on the wrong side of his physician and is made to suffer for it.
There’s heartfelt support, too, from Madeline Apia as a bereaved, black wet-nurse who proves more knowledgeable than her social superiors and Laurence Bowell’s assured direction deftly encompasses the sadness and the seriousness within this life-affirming and often very funny play.
WHERE: St James Theatre, 21 Palace Street, SW1E 5JA
TUBE: Victoria
TICKETS: £30 – £50, and there are £15 Early Bird tickets
Until January 4, 2013
stjamestheatre.co.uk
