REVIEW: Mrs T Foresees at Lion & Unicorn Theatre 27 May – 7 June 2025
“an authentic show that presents an important and untold story” ★★★
Mrs T Foresees is as bonkers as pub theatre gets, but for very good reasons. Through a series of devised vignettes, it documents the true(ish) story of the Irish fortune-teller Molly Tolpuddle (Mrs T) who ventured to Australia in the 19th century to make something of herself. She was an entertainer, and so the red curtains and wooden crates above the Lion & Unicorn pub and the interaction with the audience are a fitting means of storytelling.
We meet Molly as she arrives at the Yarra Bend Home for the Lunatic and Insane in New South Wales and is taunted by her new inmates, Franny, Lewis and Pinky. Molly (Carol Tagg) monologues about her journey and her life as an entertainer, a servant, a mother, a wife and an outcast. A lively and physically impressive ensemble of actors spook in ghostly makeup and tremble with the weight of their mental illnesses, playing the characters that peppered her life. The play is a great example of well-researched and innovative devised theatre, but unfortunately suffers from being too long. The writer and director, Gail Matthews, has created lyrical beauty from old wives’ tales and colonial lullabies, but gives them too much space in the play. Mrs T Foresees runs for over two hours, when really the story only needs one. It is more novel-esque than drama: the monologues press on too long and it is far more descriptive than action-led.
The play’s strength lies in the absurdity and commitment of its ensemble (Dottie Lubienska, Michael Nowak, Tom Barnes) who swarm Molly with their lunacy and react viscerally to her every word. Their madness is confrontational, in-yer-face, and requires the breadth of the actors’ voices and bodies – they are excellent. Tagg’s performance as Molly is just as committed, but tires with the length of the script. In the director’s note, Matthews writes that the cast sprung from an improvised drama group called Three Worlds, and it is evident that the show was built through workshopping and improvisation. Having participated in many projects like this throughout my Drama degree, I can appreciate the work that it takes to build a world from newspaper cuttings, interviews and piles upon piles of research. One cannot discredit the creative team’s commitment to building an authentic show that presents an important and untold story, but the show would benefit from their condensing the piece by at least half.
I thoroughly enjoyed the scenes in the asylum and wondered if, to give Molly more agency, there might be scope for a framing device where Molly instructs the ensemble to re-enact the important moments in her life. This would serve to tighten each scene, each transition, and in turn abbreviate a play whose brilliant moments are at present lost amongst the sheer quantity of material that has made it into the script.
Photography: Tara Basi
Mrs T Foresees by Gail Matthews and Copilot Projects
Lion & Unicorn Theatre
27th May – 7th June 2025
Box office: https://www.thelionandunicorntheatre.com/whats-on
Written and directed by Gail Matthews
Visual Creative Director – Sara Curnock Crook
Technical Creative Director – Richard Allport
Technician – Laura Hulme
Cast
Carol Tagg – Molly Tolpuddle
Dotty Lubienska – Franny
Michael Nowak - Lewis
Tom Barnes – Pinky
Social media: @MrsTForesees
