For people of a certain vintage (your reviewer, for one), Brookside holds a special place in their heart. So it’s apt that the new production of Two at Shakespeare North should feature two of the show’s stars, Michael Starke (Sinbad) and Sarah White (Bev McLaughlin). On the night Quays Life attended at least one of the two of the actors in the original production of the play at Bolton Octagon – Sue Johnston, who famously played Sheila in Brookie – was there to watch the show, along with several other cast members. For those with long memories, fellow Brookie actor John McArdle (who played Billy Corkhill) starred alongside Johnston at the Octagon.
This two-hander from Jim Cartwright (whose Road is currently paying to rave reviews at the Royal Exchange in Manchester) is the perfect vehicle for Starke and White, who play not only landlord and landlady of the Shakespeare pub (what else, this is Shakespeare North) but an assortment of downbeat characters who stray in and out of the establishment. It takes more than simple actorly versatility to switch from character to character in a heartbeat, one minute you’re dusting down the bar and the next playing a Scouse Romeo eyeing the room for potential dates in his trackie. There is an intimacy that clearly comes from these two actors having worked together for years which elevates the show and gives it added warmth.
Starke and White begin and end the play on their own, starting out a bickering couple who can’t stand the sight of each other to a final, emotional reckoning in which they reveal it was once more than just the two of them. Theirs is an old-style pub whose time has come and gone but which serves to remind us that such places acted as repositories of human nature, for better or worse. There are plenty of laugh-out loud moments in the play, most notably when Starke appears in his ‘Scouse tuxedo’ and 80s mullet to woo the women in the audience with his wily ways, all the while being carefully watched over by his gullible girlfriend. But this is a play with serious intent and director Lisa Allen elicits a remarkable performance from Starke and White as a couple in an abusive relationship, which is very hard to watch. Starkie, throughout the night more often than not playing affable characters, delivers the role with unexpected menace.
Cartwright stuffs a lot into his little play: abandoned children, mental health patients lost in the community, lonely widowers living off memories and mild, a wife caring for her dementia-struck husband. His talent, and more particularly that of Starke and White, is in bringing them alive with such compassion and wit.
Two is at Shakespeare North Playhouse from 10 to 28 March 2026.