17-07-2025
Poor Clare review — a Bridgerton star turns a saint into a Valley girl
The American writer Chiara Atik's award-winning drama about Clare of Assisi has something of the tongue-in-cheek energy of a Saturday Night Live skit. Here's the idea: Clare may be a 13th-century noblewoman but her speech and thoughts are those of a Valley girl in a high school comedy. Like, totally.
The best jokes land well in Blanche McIntyre's production at the Orange Tree, that in-the-round venue where, if you sit in the front row, you're only inches from the actors. Arsema Thomas, one of the stars of Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story makes an assured stage debut in the title role. When she swaps her sumptuous gown (full marks to the designer, Eleanor Bull) for the kind of simple garment worn by her mentor Francis, there's no mistaking her idealism.
