This charming play, packed with amusing one-liners despite the key figure being terminally ill, leaves the audience to make up their own minds about one major issue.
Did retired jeweller and former soldier, Maurice, really meet the Queen on the eve of her Coronation, and if so will she fulfil a promise to pop in for tea if he is still alive at the time of her Jubilee?
Now living in a bungalow with his wife, Maurice has a brain tumour, needs constant care from a nurse, but is determined to reach his 90th birthday convinced that the monarch will call.
Olivier Award winner Julian Glover is superb as the prickly patient who insists he had a brief dance with the Queen and fell in love with her when in her company checking the Crown Jewels before the Coronation.
Fighting his illness he can be charming, funny or fly into a rage, and there is a delightful performance from Benidorm star Sheila Reid as Helena, his loyal wife for the past 60 years, who clearly doesn’t believe the story. Her range of expressions speak volumes.
The comedy, a huge hit at the 2012 Edinburgh Festival, was written by actress Nichola McAuliffe who also plays the nurse, Katy.
Directed by Hannah Eidinow, Maurice’s Jubilee runs until Saturday and then at Malvern Theatre from March 11 to 16.
