A fast moving true story, covering almost 60 years over 90 minutes of stage time, staged with a cast of 3 using two large chairs, a couple of model houses, a carpet bag and a train, "The Queen's Nanny" looks at the career and after-effects of Marion Kirk Crawford, who was the titular nanny to Queen Elisabeth the 2nd from 1931 until 1947 - how during her time she became somewhat more of a mother to Lillibet than her actual mother, and how afterwards she was virtually excommunicated by the royals after a puff-piece interview became a bestselling book. In Priscilla Jackman's production it's a tight, compelling story of a woman fighting to own her own story against forces bigger than her, and an emotional tale of duty and inheritances. Melanie Tait mentions in her writers note she comes from a republican angle (which is apparent in the last five mintues of the material) but she's still interested in the humanity that lives inside an institution and how it treats those involved in it.
The three cast members (two new to this tour) are all solid. Matthew Backer is the one who's come back for the tour, and he's got the tour-de-force role of narrator and odd-role-man, engaging the audience as easily as any long-term Play School presenter should do and switching between hard-bitten journalists, the child and subsequent woman Lillibet, the stuttering awkward Bertie and the aloof footman Ainslie. Briallen Clarke as Marion is engaging with all the firm compasison of a true scotswoman, letting us see the years working their way on her. And Sharon Millerchip delights in the role of Queen Mother Elizabeth, from flighty party girl to stalwart of the blitz to warrior for her own position in the family.
Michael Hankin's set design is stunning in its simplicity, using simple rearrangemetns of elements for most of the scenes. Genevive Graham's costumes have style and power, locking in who is who easily for the audience to take in. Morgan Maroney's lighting design does a lot of the work of set in the colours of the backcloth, and James Peter Brown's sound design takes us from salon to wartime easily.
This is a subject and production that should feel like cosy, polite theatre, but instead it's alive and thought provoking, letting us inside the corridors of power and never taking the gentle comfortable path with it. It's the kind of thing that should tour well and capture eyeballs in all kinds of locations.
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