Review: FLOWERS FOR MRS HARRIS, Chichester Festival Theatre

Premiering at Chichester Festival Theatre in September 2018 (although first produced in Sheffield in 2016), Daniel Evans' production of Flowers for Mrs Harris takes us on a heart-warming journey of self-discovery. Based on Paul Gallico's 1958 novel of the same name, Rachel Wagstaff's book is overflowing with an authentic sense of humanity, and what it means to truly find oneself.

Ada Harris is a cleaning lady in post-war London who spends her days serving other people - in every sense of the word. Her clients are an eccentric blend of personalities - from a struggling painter in love with a young actress, to a Countess who longs to take risks and fulfil her ambitions - and they all rely on Mrs Harris for her listening ear and kind advice. Her husband Albert is her biggest supporter and their tender duet "All I Ever Needed" at the top of the first act has a fragility to it that indicates their simple life together may soon be overturned.

Years later, Albert is gone, and Mrs Harris glimpses a sight of a Christian Dior dress in a newspaper. This sparks a burning desire for her to, in her own words, "have something to come home to", and it becomes her life's mission to own this dress.

Clare Burt is, quite simply, phenomenal as Mrs Harris. She is sweet-tempered without being saccharine, and gentle yet innately strong-willed. She will break your heart into a thousand pieces with just one look and imbues her vocals with so much emotion you feel like you're being choked by your own tears every time she opens her mouth. Claire Machin as her bolshy sidekick Violet is equally magnificent, and their scenes together in Mrs Harris's kitchen anchor the narrative in the truth behind the mission to find the dress.

The cast of ten work very naturally together and each take on two characters (aside from Burt as Mrs Harris, of course) as we switch from Act I in London, to Act II in Paris. The ever-glorious Joanna Riding is a wonderfully shrill Lady Dant in Act I, switching to a kind-hearted upper-class shop assistant at Dior in Act II. Louis Maskell has a very energetic physicality that he brings to both Bob and Andre - and he absolutely nails the clumsy pratfalls as the latter. Highlighting these actors doesn't detract from the brilliance of the rest - a better example of an ensemble cast you will not find.

Richard Taylor's gentle, melodic score weaves its way in and out of the action like a piece of Parisian silk, deftly punctuating all the right places. There aren't any huge, belt-y numbers, but they aren't required here.

Lez Brotherston's set design relies heavily on a revolve, which is the perfect mechanism to keep a sense of pace without destroying the delicate nature of the storytelling. There's one particular scene in the Dior store where the revolve becomes a carousel of couture, and it is visually breathtaking. And another moment like that (which I won't spoil) where the revolve is closely entwined into the storytelling and involves some very precise choreography by the cast to make it happen seamlessly.

Flowers for Mrs Harris is executed with such understated flair and wistful romanticism that it must surely permeate even the hardest of hearts. Although this production opened back in 2018 to wide acclaim, a show like this is needed now more than ever, when we are all - much like Mrs Harris - searching for something to get us through the days.

It's available to watch for the next 30 days on the Chichester Festival Theatre website, and I urge you all to watch it, and donate if you can, to ensure that beautiful stories like these can keep being told to uplift the nation and remind us - as Mrs Harris herself learns - that we will never truly be lonely.

Available to stream for 30 days at https://www.cft.org.uk/archive/flowers-for-mrs-harris

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