D H Lawrence’s Women in Love is a thick tome that has been produced as a number of films and serials, most recently on the BBC in the spring. This is an adaptation by Phil Bartlett who also directs this production. He has preserved Lawrence’s words in all the speeches and repurposes various characters to narrate throughout. This leads to a very rapid pace; sometimes too rapid for those who do not know the original. Discussions of human relations, love and sexuality are the heart of the book and he has tried to preserve them here. However, it is too big a task for the space available and he should have removed more of the plot to allow these themes to be explored more fully.The performers work hard. The best performance comes from Ella Thackray as Ursula Brangwen. She moves well from the professionalism of a teacher to the passion of a lover. Frankie Parham, as Rupert Birkin, works well with Thackray as their relationship moves from awkwardness to consummation and marriage. The first sexual experience is reminiscent of Torvill and Dean’s Bolero. Was this an unconscious celebration of the Nottinghamshire roots of both the dancers and Lawrence? Tim Keily and Lauren Hyett play the other central couple of Gerald Crich and Gudrun Brangwen in a businesslike fashion which never gives any doubt that the relationship is not built on the chemistry of love, and is thus doomed. Fiona Guest and Robert Snellgrove cover the rest of the characters in a series of rapid changes. The staging is fine, with the nighttime rowing a highlight.And what of the nudity? The fliers suggest much but those who know the book will expect to see two men wrestling, here in knee-length long johns. It would be a great pity if the hyperbole of the Fringe programme distracted viewers from a good attempt at a very demanding task garnished by Thackray’s excellent performance.
