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dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I’m starting the year strong with good intentions. (Well, I’m still not prioritising study for my exam next week!), but I’m working on my NetGalley requests. I luckily received an early release for the Wardrobe Department which is out 13th February and I loved it.
We meet Mairead, who’s from the west of Ireland, living and working in London in a Westend theatre. She’s struggling with her finances, her food binging and the sexual predators in the theatre. She’s well aware of her precarious position within the theatre and so threads very carefully.
When her grandmother suddenly dies and she returns home for the funeral, (coincidentally the same time as when the Queen mother died), Mairead is confronted with what life is like back home and reinforces for her why she originally went to London, why she chose this career path and if she would ever fit in.
It was a great exploration “behind the seams” of the wardrobe department in a westend theatre back in the early 2000s, pre-MeToo. It was the perfect Irish read full of self-deprecation, masochism, struggling with identity and a funeral to boot, but I may be a little bit biased as I’m definitely the market for it.
Graphic: Eating disorder, Sexual harassment
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
I enjoyed the setup of this book, over a weekend. Half of it’s based in London, the other in Ireland.
I thought first half was fascinating, set in a theatre in London’s West End. The low-down on daily task in the wardrobe dept was fascinating, from putting on laundry before you leave at night, to rushing to cobblers before curtain up.
In the second half, it is set in Ireland and goes through family dramas at a funeral. There is an undercurrent in Ireland that I never understood and I get a little frustrated at books that don’t tell you what is going on.
There are a lot of topics touched on but just left vague at the end. Reality of life, I get that but it takes away from what started as a very engaging world.
I thought first half was fascinating, set in a theatre in London’s West End. The low-down on daily task in the wardrobe dept was fascinating, from putting on laundry before you leave at night, to rushing to cobblers before curtain up.
In the second half, it is set in Ireland and goes through family dramas at a funeral. There is an undercurrent in Ireland that I never understood and I get a little frustrated at books that don’t tell you what is going on.
There are a lot of topics touched on but just left vague at the end. Reality of life, I get that but it takes away from what started as a very engaging world.
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
At the start of the book I'd thought I was reading a story set post WW2. I'm not sure why I'd got that in my head, but somehow the backstage life felt like a historical setting, and so it was a jolt when a mention of something contemporary jolted me to realise I was reading a story set in 2002. Anyway, confusing starts aside, I started to enjoy the book once our main character heads back to Ireland for a funeral. I felt the family life there was well captured, and I was interested in the history there, the different characters, the conversations and the funeral arrangements. I hadn't been sure what the point of the theatre part had been before, but I felt it did come together at the end.
emotional
informative
reflective
fast-paced
Graphic: Rape
Moderate: Death, Eating disorder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Alcoholism, Vomit, Sexual harassment
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
An evocative and sensitive book with some great dialogue. A young Irish woman details her life in 2001 London, the minutiae of her work in the wardrobe department of a theatre and the characters she meets. She has to return home for a funeral, and the family dynamics are beautifully observed, as is the fraught mother-daughter relationship.
“If I had two rooms to live in, I would spend my days believing I should be in the other one.”
In The Wardrobe Department, by Elaine Garvey (UK Release 13th Feb 2025) we are delivered to 2002, and the story of Mairéad, a young Irish woman who works in a small London Theatre. Creative and skilled, she’s finding her first job unglamourous: the costumes are in a constant state of disrepair, torn, stained, and stinking. In the cramped confines of the theatre it’s difficult to avoid the patronising and predatory cast and crew, and the show’s resident tyrant, Oliver, the producer of the current play. Charismatic, overbearing, and vindictive, he’s best avoided by the technical staff.
Mairéad feels out of place, at a sharp remove from her immediate colleagues. She imagines they sneer at her, seeing her as an ignorant yokel at loose in the big city. Aggrieved at this, she’s oblivious of her own shallow preconceptions about their lives.
Contact with her family in Ireland is minimal. It’s clear she’s come to London to escape something, to renew herself, feeling that she was out of place there too, but her loneliness has brought her to place of statis.
Everything she tried to leave behind still has a hold on her, distant voices berating and dismissive, fuelling her fears and self-doubt. If it’s better to be less visible – unnoticed and unattractive, a survival technique in a world of powerful, handsy men – what’s to stop you disappearing altogether?
A trip back to Ireland might provide a chance for Mairéad to look her history in the eye and understand what brought her here.
Mairéad is complex and convincing, and her story is told with persuasive acuity. Elaine Garvey has gifted each of her characters with assured nuance. Their words and actions allow us to build out their dimensions. She’s equally good at conjouring a sense of place and atmosphere with a light, effective, touch. I found myself delightedly wrongfooted at times by The Wardrobe Department, the plot veering away from the expected to tell a story full of truthful tenderness and hope.
In The Wardrobe Department, by Elaine Garvey (UK Release 13th Feb 2025) we are delivered to 2002, and the story of Mairéad, a young Irish woman who works in a small London Theatre. Creative and skilled, she’s finding her first job unglamourous: the costumes are in a constant state of disrepair, torn, stained, and stinking. In the cramped confines of the theatre it’s difficult to avoid the patronising and predatory cast and crew, and the show’s resident tyrant, Oliver, the producer of the current play. Charismatic, overbearing, and vindictive, he’s best avoided by the technical staff.
Mairéad feels out of place, at a sharp remove from her immediate colleagues. She imagines they sneer at her, seeing her as an ignorant yokel at loose in the big city. Aggrieved at this, she’s oblivious of her own shallow preconceptions about their lives.
Contact with her family in Ireland is minimal. It’s clear she’s come to London to escape something, to renew herself, feeling that she was out of place there too, but her loneliness has brought her to place of statis.
Everything she tried to leave behind still has a hold on her, distant voices berating and dismissive, fuelling her fears and self-doubt. If it’s better to be less visible – unnoticed and unattractive, a survival technique in a world of powerful, handsy men – what’s to stop you disappearing altogether?
A trip back to Ireland might provide a chance for Mairéad to look her history in the eye and understand what brought her here.
Mairéad is complex and convincing, and her story is told with persuasive acuity. Elaine Garvey has gifted each of her characters with assured nuance. Their words and actions allow us to build out their dimensions. She’s equally good at conjouring a sense of place and atmosphere with a light, effective, touch. I found myself delightedly wrongfooted at times by The Wardrobe Department, the plot veering away from the expected to tell a story full of truthful tenderness and hope.