Review: Alys, Always at the Barn in Welwyn Garden City

Alys, Always at the Barn Theatre in Welwyn Garden City. (Image: Simon Wallace / MeltingPot Pictures)

Clive Weatherley, artistic director of the Barn Theatre, is surely to be congratulated on his current season.

Recently I’ve seen a couple of terrific modern plays there, followed by a rollicking good Treasure Island, and this week I saw Alys, Always, a stylish, compelling watch, directed by Mel Powell.

Alys, Always had its debut at the Bridge Theatre in 2019, with Nick Hytner directing.

Alys, Always at the Barn Theatre in Welwyn Garden City. (Image: Simon Wallace / MeltingPot Pictures)

Collecting mostly four-star reviews, it was billed as both a gripping psychological thriller and a dark comedy although, to be honest, I didn’t find much to laugh at.

I found it chilling to watch as unremarkable Frances (Jessica Drucker) finds a way to enter the world of the rich and famous, and so become quite remarkable as she pits her manipulative talents against the not-so-bright intellects of the entitled people around her.

You can almost read her thoughts as she realises how easy it’s going to be.

Alys, Always at the Barn Theatre in Welwyn Garden City. (Image: Simon Wallace / MeltingPot Pictures)

Driving home from another dull Christmas with her parents, Frances comes upon a car that has crashed on a country road and stays with the driver, Alys, as she dies.

Back at her desk, where she’s an unappreciated and overworked sub-editor on the books desk of a Sunday newspaper, she’s decided to put it behind her. Until she discovers that Alys was the wife of best-selling author Laurence Kyte (Des Turner).

Then we watch as she manoeuvres her way into the grieving family, gaining status at work through her perceived connection with the Kytes.

From the moment Jessica Drucker strode on to the stage, she had her audience.

Alys, Always at the Barn Theatre in Welwyn Garden City. (Image: Simon Wallace / MeltingPot Pictures)

On stage for the whole of the two and a quarter hour production, we watch her morph from a downtrodden dogsbody to a high-flying player.

Des Turner plays widower, Laurence Pyke, with just the right mix of guilt-ridden, grief-stricken husband and ageing womaniser.

Alice Croot was totally believable as the slightly narcissistic, heartbroken daughter, turning in another fine performance in her third production for the Barn.

New to the Barn stage, Arthur Roberts is a convincing, angrily grieving son, Teddy.

Alys, Always at the Barn Theatre in Welwyn Garden City. (Image: Simon Wallace / MeltingPot Pictures)

Director Mel Powell has assembled a uniformly skilled ensemble cast to do justice to the sharp dialogue and edgy feel of the piece.

They confidently support the central family characters, with a stand-out performance from Jan Palmer Sayer as Charlotte.

The set, simply presented, was enhanced by the artful use of back projections, so effective, yet subtly introduced that we moved seamlessly from hot-desk office to holiday cottage, without noticing how we got there.

This is a high value production, about as near to theatrical perfection as anything I’ve seen recently on the Barn stage.

• Alys, Always runs at the Barn till Saturday, April 22. Evening performances at 8pm, matinee on Saturday at 2.30pm.
• Tickets cost £14 from the Barn Theatre box office on 01707 324300 or online at www.barntheatre.co.uk

Alys, Always at the Barn Theatre in Welwyn Garden City. (Image: Simon Wallace / MeltingPot Pictures)

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