HOLDING BACK THE YEARS (I AM MARIA)

 

George Bernard Shaw once observed: "We don't stop playing because we grow old.

"We grow old because we stop playing."

As she marks another birthday, Lesley Manville's title character in the Channel 4 one-off drama 'I Am Maria' very much embraces Shaw's view.

However there's one thing stopping her - she is trapped in a stultifying marriage.

At the start of the drama she has created with Dominic Savage, the character played by Manville, an Oscar nominated actress who is rarely dull in any role, is looking longingly at a colleague in work as she prepares to return home for the weekend.

Gershwyn Eustace Jr's Anthony beckons Maria to stay a few more minutes and then produces a birthday cake as colleagues sing the first of three renditions of 'Happy Birthday' during 'I Am Maria'.

There's a clear chemistry between Maria and Anthony, as they discuss their respective plans for the weekend over cake.

He is playing a gig with his jazz group.

She will be at home, having a birthday lunch with her family.

You can sense, however, her frustration that her plans seems so staid in comparison and her longing to break out over the suburban, middle aged straitjacket that has enveloped her life 

Buzzed by the attention she has received from Anthony, she drives home where her husband, Michael Gould's John is rather predictably waiting with a bottle of champagne, ready to sing 'Happy Birthday' and make his signature spaghetti dish.

On the spur of the moment, Maria wants to make love but this is spurned by John because it does not conform to his notion of romance.

They row and the seeds are sewn for an awkward 24 hours, with the couple at odds with each other for much of Savage and Manville's tale.

Lunch with family sees both of them sniping at each other, with Maria chiding him about the way he questions his daughter Ellie James' Alice's boyfriend.

John belittles an anecdote about a woman she knows who goes on an epic adventure every year to the US to drive coast to coast on her own.

There's a clear subtext to Maria's remarks as she celebrates her children's youth and ability to take risks 

Maria wants freedom to live life to the max.

She doesn't want to be defined by age and believes she definitely has much to live for, if allowed.

However she feels she is being prevented from living and hints at this in a teary admission to Alice whose decision to go to Canada she applauds.

When her daughter, her Irish boyfriend Daryl McCormack's David and her son, Ziggy Heath's Andrew leave the family home, that's when fireworks with John really erupt.

After a slight dip in form with 'I Am Danielle', 'I Am Maria' feels much more like the collaborations we are used to, with Manville turning in a typically fastidious performance.

Maria is fighting against a husband and others who are pushing her prematurely towards old age and retirement with little fun in her life, little play.

She refuses to fold and this insistence on asserting her own life can even be seen in her choice of clothes which are vibrant while John's are drab.

Manville has always been a great practitioner of show, don't tell throughout her career and is on too form in 'I Am Maria'.

Every look, every gesture conveys her character's sense of suffocation, her deep frustration for John and desire for Anthony.

Like Savage's other collaborations, 'I Am Maria' also relies on a strong supporting cast and Gould, in particular, doesn't disappoint as a joyless, often controlling husband who has lost any sense of what living really means.

Eustace Jr, James, Heath and McCormack do what is required of them and do it very well.

However it is Manville's show and she very much dominates proceedings.

Savage and his cinematographer Rachel Clark also work effectively, capturing every glance, every look of exasperation on Manville and Gould's faces with their unobtrusive camera.

In the stable of one off dramas Savage has created with leading actresses, 'I Am Maria' compares favourably to his strongest collaborations with Vicki McClure ('I Am Nicola'), Samantha Morton ('I Am Kirsty') and this year, Suranne Jones ('I Am Victoria').

2021's three collaborations from Savage also hold up decently against the original 2019 edition.

He has done a good job with his leads highlighting issues that women don't normally get to air in primetime drama.

And he has done that with actresses who have bravely explored troubling themes through improvisation.

While it is undoubtedly a gruelling collaborative process, Suranne Jones, Letitia Wright and Lesley Manville have delivered powerful, thought provoking dramas.

Here's hoping it won't be long until we see three more talented actresses taking on this challenge.

('I Am Maria' was broadcast on Channel 4 on August 19, 2021)

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