Sensible Footwear’s new production was originally on my list to be seen live at the Etcetera Theatre, but transport issues meant I couldn’t attend.
I am reviewing here from a recording provided to me by the company and noted with grateful thanks.
To Hecate is a two-hander about lifelong friends Sue (Sandra Hollins) and Di (Deborah Whitmarsh-Boyce, who has also written the play).
In conversation on a day outside, they chat about family, ageing, their bodies, drinking, dating, and a lot more. As middle-aged women, they have a lot of shared experiences as well as a shorthand of communication.
Hecate is the goddess who bestows the blessings of daily life, and that it what this play is about. No drama, no tricks, no twists. Hollins’s Sue is slightly more bubbly and confident, trying out new beauty treatments and heading out for posh meals.
There are moments all women of a certain age will identify with (hot flushes, drying out, vitamin supplements, becoming grandna rather than lover), while Whitmarsh-Boyce’s writing captures the wry humour of sisterhood.
As a short play (running 42 minutes), it feels as if it has legs to become a full-length show in which we find out much more about Sue and Di and what drives them every day. Maybe even a glimpse of them as the ‘party girls’ back in the day?
To Hecate is a gently amusing and knowing piece of theatre which I enjoyed. Sensible Footwear’s USP of creativity from “women of a certain age” has certainly paid off here.
This play ran at the Etcetera Theatre as part of Camden Fringe in Aug 2023.
***.5