Moll Flanders gets a WAG makeover at The Radlett Centre

5:24pm Thursday 15th May 2008

FEISTY 18th Century literary heroine Moll Flanders gets a serious makeover this month as Brute Farce Theatre brings her right up to date for The Radlett Centre stage.

First appearing in 1722, Moll Flanders is the English novel's first leading female character but, 300 years later, her obsession with social mobility, trading her looks and guile for advancement through marriage, invites clear parallels with the current fascination with celebrity, vanity and the WAG phenomenon.

With large helpings of modern mayhem and a generous sprinkling of satire, the 18th Century England Moll Flanders would have known is ingeniously re-invented for the stage.

This outrageous adaptation from one of England's most exciting young theatre companies starts from the dingy recesses of Newgate prison, and follows Moll's life through marriage and prostitution to her final penance in the plantations of Virginia.

Brute Farce's versatile cast presents a rambunctious rabble of pickpockets, perverts and peers in this uproariously compelling tale of incest, bigamy and crime.

While maintaining period language and atmosphere that will please the purists, this is a pared down, breathlessly physical production that is shot through with a contemporary soundtrack and a knowingly anachronistic tone.

Moll Flanders is at The Radlett Centre, Aldenham Avenue, Radlett on Wednesday, May 21 at 8pm. Tickets: 01923 859291, or www.radlettcentre.co.uk (£10-£12)

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