Three Women @ Shiny New Festival, Lantern Theatre, 14 Jul

A well-executed prelude to the rapidly approaching Edinburgh Fringe, Lantern Theatre Liverpool’s Shiny New Festival opened this year’s programme with a trio of hour long plays shown in rapid succession. And who said Liverpool didn’t do fringe?

Beginning the night was Three Women, with a believable preview performance ahead of its run as part of Manchester’s 24:7 festival. Written by Mari Lloyd and directed by Peter Mitchelson, a dilapidated kitchen houses three generations of women who are struggling to cope with the death of a child that never was.

It is a heavy play with a delicate subject matter – a challenging combination that perhaps claims responsibility for a tentative opening – but once in its stride, Three Women proves itself a solid drama. Splashes of humour add colour and complexity to a serious narrative, allowing both character and actor to stretch their legs.

Jackie Jones is confident as the struggling mother attempting to rewrite her past by commandeering her daughter’s present. Jones succeeds in bringing a desperation and tension to the stage that scaffolds the entire performance. Her inability to articulate her emotions channels into furious sweeping of her unkempt kitchen and incessant flicks at the switch of her grimy kettle.

Annie Edwards is a consummate Gran, adding light to an otherwise dark tableau. Her ageing dizziness is interspersed with touches of wisdom that contribute towards the plays authentic cadence. Despite her young age, Lily Shepard is perhaps the strongest of the three, her teenage rationality tested and taut as she struggles to accept the loss of something she never wanted but cannot forget.

Mitchelson has clearly considered the intricacies of Lloyd’s play: the dialogue is delivered as if each word is chosen carefully, deliberated and picked apart. Moments of silence are masterfully filled with unsaid feeling and it is in these instances that the play truly shines, allowing for its initial slowness and static narrative to be forgiven.

A capable play that belongs to the popular realm of domestic drama (with obligatory absent dad included), Three Women will no doubt endear audiences with its generational parallel’s and hopeful conclusion, even if the story does, at points, render itself a little too familiar.