Interesting and enjoyable evening at Berko SpeakEasy: met one of the characters from London Lies in the flesh – or at least as played by Julie Mayhew.

Barbara as played by Julie Mayhew

Barbara, heroine of Rosalind Stopps‘ hilarious but poignant The Suitcase (and heroine of foot based retail, and her own fantasy life too), was wearing a lime green sixties number in what may well have been Crimplene, and a faux Chanel jacket, finished with her Senior Sales Assistant badge. She was much younger than I had been led to believe by Ms Stopps. Julie Mayhew has Barbara’s toxic mix of self-importance, resentment and disappointment down to a tee. The atmosphere was cheerful and enthusiastic, with people rushing apologetically to the bar for a drink before the action started; the audience were attentive and appreciative,  bought books and asked Rosalind to sign them, so we were pretty happy! Rosalind was also very pleased to have her story read in the company of stories by Roald Dahl, Ron Rash, Jon McGregor and Kevin Barry, personally I think it’s the company she deserves to keep, and I’m sure Barbara would agree.

The Berko SpeakEasy Company ( Julie Mayhew, Elizabeth Bower, John Lynn and Adrian Scarborough) produce a hybrid reading/performance whereby the actors move about between and among the audience and use props, but read from the page. The space is long and narrow which did occasionally produce issues with being able to hear properly and see without twisting around uncomfortably, but despite this they did all of the writers proud. My favourite (apart from Barbara obviously) was Adrian Scarborough’s rendition of Jon McGregor’s  Lost Property.)