Reminiscent of Alan Bennett’s monologue series Talking Heads, Shez Sharon – written and performed by the dynamic Nicole Franco – is a tale that unfolds during a short but pivotal period in the life of an ordinary person who must through force of circumstance take stock of their lives. In Sharon’s case her greatest regret.
Sharon is a hairdresser who sees herself as a therapist motivated by love. As the folk etymology of the title suggests, Sharon’s style is informed more by experience than education. She is full of delightful, natural malapropisms – “a leper can’t change his spots” or the verdict on her failed marriage – we were like “chalky cheese”.
Monologues in which the audience is directly asked questions, often per force rhetorical, are difficult devices theatrically. Yet Franco succeeds unusually well, in part because she effortlessly engages with the audience to create a safe space in which we become her salon clients. (In most cases, the tiny adjustments she makes to her volunteers’ appearances produce significant improvements!) It is also because Franco is one of our most stylish actresses, which we read easily through the rather simple character of the stylist she portrays. This sets up a gentle comic irony.
Sharon’s story is original yet full of familiar echoes – the young mother who gets hooked on drugs, the family scattered by migration, the discrepancies in wealth and education, and the courageous woman who triumphs over herself and then succeeds in her own business. The flaws in her character, the contradiction between how she sees herself and what she reveals are all willingly forgivable.
This is a delightful and heartening comedy in a production well helmed by director Megan Choritz.
