51 Shades of Maggie @ Darlington Civic

Okay, for most people, 50 Shades of Grey was a wonderfully liberating, if somewhat naughty book which allowed women across the country to spend their lunchtimes at work escaping into the realms of erotic BDSM without having to hide the book inside a copy of Womens Realm.  I have not read it, nor any of the many spin offs and knock offs that sprung up in a 'summer of sin' but I know those who have so I took a couple of them with me to see this one woman show which takes the 50 Shades themes and rams them deep into the back alleys of the East End.

Firstly, Adele Silva, who for many is the brattish teen from Emmerdale, shows that she is a truly gifted actress - she can sing, she can dance, can cover many different accents and characters and has impeccable comic timing.  Whilst the story she was retelling didn't ring many bells for me, the way she brought each character to life was undeniably brilliant.  It is easy to see why this show has sold out so many venues - I found myself thinking of the Godbar play Bouncers and the way that brings real life front & centre.

Now, the story - well it's almost your typical girl meets boy, girl falls in love, girl realises that this an isn't for her and returns to the fold of her friends and kind - I said 'almost' a typical story as the focus very rapidly shifts to whips, chains, blindfolds and submissiveness.  There is a very funny gypsy party and a hilarious if somewhat cringe worthy encounter in the dole office.  What Silva does is ensure that her main character, Maggie, never loses her grounding, helped throughout by a smattering of non-expletive words amongst the swearing, cursing and 'chav-talk'.  This is certainly NOT a show for anyone who is easily offended by 'industrial' language, especially when spoken by a beautiful and demure lead, but it's possibly more shocking because deep down everyone knows that Maggie is stereotypical of so many young women (think TOWIE when the cameras stop rolling).

Ms Silva only breaks character once, prompted by the audiences reactions to a rather graphic statement featuring John McCririck, showing that underneath the coarse and brash persona of Maggie lies a brilliant actress who, for almost 2 hours, has solely and totally owned the stage.

Would I recommend this show, yes if you are a group of girls looking for a laugh filled evening, yes if you are a fan of character acting and want to see a young lady performing some of the very best, yes if you enjoy lifting up the dirty sheets of modern culture to see what is still there from the night before - just go prepared !