Lauren Crisp is a book editor, writer and keen follower of arts and culture. She reviews theatre and cultural events in and around the district in her spare time.

You can contact Lauren on laurencrispwriter@gmail.com.

As we settle into the autumn months, Little Women is just the cosy classic for which theatre audiences long. Louisa May Alcott’s semi-autobiographic novel has stood the test the time: the book has never been out of print since its publication in 1868 and has been adapted for stage and screen ever since, most recently by film director Greta Gerwig, whose 2019 all-star cast piqued the interest of a modern generation.

York Theatre Royal now presents its take on the Civil War-era family drama, the much-celebrated tale of four sisters living in genteel poverty in mid-19th century Massachusetts.

Characterisation is clearly defined: Jo (Freya Parks) is the headstrong tomboy; eldest sister Meg (Ainy Medina) is traditional and virtuous; Beth (Laura Soper) is gentle and unassuming while youngest Amy is as precocious as her creator intended (with some excellent foot stomping by Helen Chong).

Parks’s take on Jo is superb, and her repartee with best friend, Laurie – performed by a charming Nikhil Singh Rai – is truly pleasing.  

For me, this convivial duo is the production’s highlight. Beyond that, I found myself unconvinced by the familial ties that should form the crux of this tale, including the girls’ bond with their mother, Marmee; there is, somehow, a flatness and a lack of depth about this production.

This might be down to some conspicuous over-acting – of performance and elocution over emotion and substance. 

Indeed, at times, characters feel more like caricatures. Or perhaps the abridged adaptation by Anne-Marie Casey, which focuses on key events and characters, does not permit Alcott’s characterisation to really sing.

The production lopes along at a steady enough pace, though, and there is still much to enjoy. 

I liked Ruari Murchison’s versatile set; a sparse domestic interior comprising simple wooden furniture and bookshelves is interspersed with towering silver birches, bringing the outside in, and vice versa.

Costume, too, is well curated. A piano populates stage left and is used to charming effect, the sisters harmonising Christmas carols, lending a certain pastoral charm to proceedings.

While not overflowing with its promised warmth, this latest production of Little Women keeps Alcott’s characters alive, centuries on.

Little Women is on at York Theatre Royal until Saturday, October 12.