How I Learned To Drive, Southwark Playhouse - theatre review

Olivia Poulet is 'superb' in Paula Vogel's tragicomedy about coming of age and the loss of innocence, set in rural sixties Maryland
Warped relationship: William Ellis as Uncle Peck and Olivia Poulet as Li’l Bit (Picture: Jeremiah Jones)
Henry Hitchings20 March 2015

This is a well-judged revival of a shrewd tragicomedy by Paula Vogel that depicts coming of age in rural Maryland in the Sixties.

Structured to reflect the phases of a learner driver’s education, it’s a bittersweet portrait of a young woman finding out more than she wants to from a predatory, yet engaging relative.

Olivia Poulet is superb as Li’l Bit, whom we see as a girl on the cusp of adolescence, a sparky teenager and an adult recalling years of unhealthy intimacy with Uncle Peck. She skilfully mixes vulnerability, self-awareness and resilience, seducing us with her storytelling even as she recalls the experience of being seduced.

William Ellis captures the discreet, almost courtly manner in which Peck wields his needy brand of destructiveness and a three-strong “Greek chorus” frames the action and embodies the audience’s conscience.

Vogel makes us smile and squirm as she challenges convention about lost innocence and director Jack Sain locates the humour in the troubling subject matter. There’s a nostalgic affection for Americana — nicely evoked in Katharine Heath’s design — yet a wry, worldly intelligence.

Until Saturday March 14 (020 7407 0234, southwarkplayhouse.co.uk)

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