Ruth Leon Pocket theatre review…The Voice of the Turtle – Jermyn Street Theatre

The Voice of the Turtle – Jermyn Street Theatre

This week’s welcome discovery is a play with a happy ending. Maybe I shouldn’t have told you that. Maybe I just should have said that John van Druten’s The Voice of the Turtle is a funny, smart, well-acted, elegantly directed, forgotten play from 1943 and I, for one, am delighted that it has been revived at Jermyn Street Theatre. Well, I’ve said all that now.

Set in New York in the middle of World War Two, it revolves around an Army sergeant on leave and his unexpected date with a young actress on the rebound. Playing the young couple are excellent Nathan Ives-Moiba and Imogen Elliott (making her astonishing professional debut here), with a hilarious Skye Hallam as the Best Friend who makes it all happen.

 John van Druten is these days known primarily for his adaptation of Isherwood’s The Berlin Stories which was in turn adapted into the musical Cabaret, but he was much more than that, one of the most successful playwrights of the 1930s, having written more than 25 plays to great critical and commercial success.

On this happy showing of The Voice of The Turtle, I hope to become acquainted with many more.

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