So says Gareth Southgate in the National Theatre’s brilliantly entertaining production of James Graham’s take on Southgate’s time managing the England men’s football team. Southgate (played with warmth, intensity and sincerity by Gwilym Lee) spreads the Cross of St George flag on the dressing room floor before asking his players to share what that flag (and the country it signifies) means to each of them. By this point in the play, the efforts of Dr Pippa Grange (Liz White) have enabled this group of successful but often stressed young men to share deeply felt truths with each other. 

Most notably on this occasion, young Bukayo Saka (Tane Siah) steps forward to deliver a powerful account of his emotions after missing a crucial penalty in the 2021 final of the Euros, and the vicious social media abuse he suffered as a consequence (much of it explicitly racist). Marcus Rashford (Jude Carmichael), the “boy from Wythenshawe,” seizes his moment – along with Raheem Sterling (Gamba Cole) and Jadon Sancho (Kadell Herida)  –  to articulate the inner conflict imposed upon athletes of colour, who wear the Three Lions with pride, yet are singled out for disproportionate and disgusting attacks whenever the team falls short of the summit. 

Southgate’s sympathy, heartfelt though it is, is not enough. “What are you going to do about it?” is the challenge thrown at him. He rises to the challenge, taking a public stand, helping his players speak out (ironically but powerfully, ‘taking a stand’ includes determinedly and pointedly, ‘taking the knee’). 

This is Southgate’s story, and we are reminded throughout of the decency of the man.

Penalties are, appropriately enough, the motif of “Dear England.” The performance opens with Southgate watching his younger self miss the penalty in the 1996 semifinal of the Euros (against Germany, of course) which saw England eliminated from a competition they might otherwise have won. 

When he became manager, England had never won a penalty shootout. One of his back room staff reveals a key statistic: while England players take an average of 2.8 seconds between placing the ball on the penalty spot and shooting, Germany (the world’s most successful team in penalty shootouts at that point) take an average of 8.4 seconds. 

The argument of the play lies in how best to respond to the data. For the back room staff, it’s a simple matter of more practise and a bit less haste. The manager, however, has recruited renowned psychologist, Dr Pippa Grange. For Grange, the solution to England’s underachieving lies not in the unanalysed stats, but in pursuing and redressing the underlying emotional issues. She wants to ask why England players hurry this important task, why they are so desperate to get it over and done (with such repeatedly unhappy outcomes). 

“We are probably not going to win the World Cup,” Southgate tells his squad much to the horror of one and all. This is not how England managers are meant to talk. But Southgate is resolved. He’s taking the pressure off. His aim, with Grange’s guidance, is to lift this trophy six years on, in Qatar. For now, the goal is to build confidence, team spirit, trust. Even so (or perhaps because of this change), a minor miracle does happen at the 2018 World Cup: England win a penalty shootout (4-3 against Colombia). Progress.

Graham is such a fine writer, he can have us laughing at the inarticulacy of England captain, Harry Kane (a splendid, layered portrayal by Ryan Whittle) for the greater part of the play, only to use Kane’s lack of facility with words to move us to the verge of tears following his crucial (and uncharacteristic) missed penalty against France in the 2022 World Cup quarter final in Qatar. 

By this point, Grange has left the England camp. Graham’s thesis is that this rift (brought about by Southgate’s sudden eagerness to accelerate his agenda for transforming England’s fortunes) is the torn seam that rips apart the whole, admirable project and leads to his dignified but sorry exit in July 2024. As Graham tells it, this reversion to old ways (pressure to bring home a trophy) results indirectly from the pandemic – when the postponement of the 2019-20 Euros led to the finals being staged in England in 2021.

The prospect of finally erasing his own Wembley torment by triumphing at the new Wembley seems to cloud his judgment; patience and thoughtfulness give way to neediness and indecisiveness. A scene is devoted to the disastrously late introduction of Sancho, Rashford and Saka – the three young players who would soon miss those penalties, giving Italy the trophy. 

Much of “Dear England” is laugh out loud funny. Southgate’s back room staff, Physio Phil (Martin Marquez), Mike Webster (Mark Bardock) and Steve Holland (Tony Turner) are old school cold-wet-sponge-and-tough-tackles football men. Their resistance to Grange’s innovations is sometimes dismissive, sometimes aggressive, often ridiculous and laughable. The two Gregs (Dyke and Clarke – successive chairs of the Football Association) are mercilessly lampooned, as are a succession of Southgate’s predecessors (Taylor, Eriksson, Capello, Allardyce). 

Gunnar Cauthery gives an excellent and amusing impression of Gary Lineker, while socio-political context is wittily provided by marionette-like caricatures of Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss. 

Eric Dier (Tom Lane) and Harry Maguire (Ryan Donaldson) play crucial cameos, but Josh Barrow deserves special acknowledgment for a quite hilarious portrayal of goalie, Jordan Pickford.

Women’s football is not forgotten. Alex Scott (a convincing rendition by Felixe Forde) appears both as player and presenter, and one of the biggest cheers of the night greets the acknowledgement the Serena Wiegman’s England women’s team did bring home the Euro trophy in 2022. 

Liz White renders Dr Pippa Grange, a woman in this quintessentially masculine world, as assured yet sensitive, battling tenaciously against laddish banter and that stubborn male refusal to own up to and address emotional vulnerability. Her character prompts two of the play’s most powerful moments. First, she presses Southgate to talk openly to his players about his feelings regarding that penalty miss. If you can’t lead on this, she tells him, how can they follow?  Later on, she shares an immensely touching scene in which she joins in Rashford’s pre-game ritual, which includes saying a few words to his recently departed Nan. 

Fans of Spanish football will be gutted that their triumph in 2024 goes unmentioned. The finale jumps straight to Southgate’s resignation and his farewell to the players. Good move! 

Even at 2 hours and 50 minutes (including a 20 minute interval), Graham’s facility for short, punchy scenes and Rupert Goold’s tight direction (picked up in this revival by Elin Schofield) make the time fly by. The penalty shootouts are gripping, thanks in part to Es Devlin’s design, ably assisted by Jon Clark’s lighting, and co-sound designers, Dan Balfour and Tom Gibbons (oh, that sound of the ball hitting the back of the net!) 

“Dear England” provides conclusive evidence for what the pundits have told us again and again: football is great theatre. 

Dear England is at Lowry Salford from 2-29 June 2025.

Read our interview with the cast of Dear England.

The post Dear England: Review appeared first on Quays Life.

After scooping the award for Best New Play In 2024 the production has been updated following last year’s UEFA EURO tournament to reflect Southgate’s final chapter as England manager.    

Quays Life meets its stars Gwilym Lee (Gareth Southgate), Liz White (Dr Pippa Grange), Josh Barrow (Jordan Pickford) and Jude Carmichael (Marcus Rashford) to find out more:

Q: How challenging is it to play such well-known characters who are so prevalent in the media?

Josh Barrow (Jordan Pickford): “You don’t get much in terms of characterisation when they’re on the pitch and in the post-match interviews, so you have to go digging for scenes like in the locker room when it’s just them. You have to make your choices with the characterisation and that’s when you get to play around a little bit.”

Gwilym Lee (Gareth Southgate): “I think we benefited during Southgate’s tenure from them opening up to the England fans with social media – for instance, the YouTube videos that go behind the scenes at St George’s Park. They are really illuminating because when you watch them do post-match interviews, they present a version of themselves which is quite considered for the media, whereas when you see them in those videos when they’re with the inflatables in the swimming pool or just messing around, that’s when you see them kind of free and without constraints.”

Q: Gwilym, while you’re not a caricature of Gareth Southgate, how much study did you do to create such a convincing performance?

Gwilym Lee (GS): “You start with the outside in when you’re working with a real person, which is kind of the opposite way around to how I’d usually approach a character. The trick is to find the ‘why’s’ – constantly ask that question – the ticks and the twitches and the mannerisms – I wonder why he moves like and what is it about his character that makes him move like that? 

We’re not impersonators, we’re actors and the aim of an actor is hopefully to find the humanity of a character and also to find yourself in a character. This is very much my version of Gareth.”

Q: The staging is so impressive, featuring a huge round stage with three revolving segments. How much of a challenge is that when you’re performing?

Josh Barrow (JP): “We had a whole portion of the rehearsals to learn how to use the revolve, as it’s three tiers – so one goes this way, the other goes this way, the other goes that way. We have to really practice on how to walk on it.”

Q: Jude, how does it feel knowing you’re going to be playing Marcus Rashford a stone’s throw from Old Trafford?

Jude Carmichael (MR): “When my agent called me to say I’d got the job, it was like the fear came through. I was thinking ‘when we go to Manchester, everyone’s gonna be like ‘Go on then!’”

Gwilym Lee (GS): “When you get closer to the weekend, you start to get some football crowds in and it’s really fun – you have people who react when the players come out and Leicester City is mentioned or Manchester City etc and they go yay or boo and it’s really fun.”

Josh Barrow (JP): “We feed off it. When you go to the theatre, you sit down, you watch the show, you applaud the actors etc – but I think with this, it almost demands participation. There’s laughs and cheers even boos but then it culminates in this a massive party at the end with ‘Sweet Caroline’ and I think the more a crowd lean into that and the more a crowd really give themselves over to you, the more fun it is. When we do get some football fans in an audience, that end moment is just wild, almost like a rock concert.”

Gwilym Lee (GS): “Some people come not knowing anything about football and it resonates on a different level, and then there’s the polar opposite – people who come expecting it to be a football play, which it is, but then it’s also kind of a Trojan horse, it’s about so much more. I think the idea of bringing in new audiences is a real bonus.”

Q: This play feels so special because while we know the outcome, the audience still watch with a sense of hope, thinking ‘maybe, just maybe’. Does that translate to you all on stage?

Josh Barrow (JP): “You clock audience members during some of the penalties – and even though everybody knows how it goes, as it was such a big moment – everyone is sat watching gripped and is so engaged. It’s just perfect.”

Jude Carmichael (MR): “You kind of get swept up in it. While you know the outcome, obviously, you know what it means to be a fan watching and then even the aftermath.  Whether that be good or bad, you can’t help but get caught up in it.”

Q: Have any of you performed at the Lowry before?

Gwilym Lee (GS): “I was part of a tour years ago where we did King Lear up there with Derek Jacobi. I’m looking forward to going back, I love it! It’s a beautiful theatre and a perfect match to the Olivier Theatre at the National, it’s a very similar kind of space. It’s a great city and it’s going to be fun taking it to a new audience up there and seeing how they’ll respond to it.”

Q: There are so many themes in this play – what do you want audiences to take away from it?

Gwilym Lee (GS): “It was very interesting watching Gareth Southgate’s lecture recently and it feels like everything that was touched upon in that lecture is the heart of this play. It’s about resilience, belief and giving that resilience and belief to people.”

Liz White (Dr PG): “Masculinity is an interesting part of it, too. I’ve really enjoyed researching Pippa because I get to listen to all her strategies and her approaches for a better, calmer life and one that’s filled with deeper joy and deeper loss as well. She talks about how to lose. This sometimes gets a laugh and I can imagine that sounds quite defeatist but actually, what she’s just saying is, you can look at it in a very reflective way and let that feed the way you approach your next battle or your next match. I feel kind of infused by her lessons and I hope people watching it might look at the way they approach things in a more whole, holistic way.”

Gwilym Lee (GS): “I think one of my favourite things of Pippa’s is the idea of winning deep and winning shallow and there’s a difference to just winning at all costs. It’s like winning with integrity and winning with depth.”

Liz White (DR PG): “I feel like that means that actually, if you got out there and played with integrity after all your prep and put the effort in, regardless of the outcome, you’ve won.”

Q: Sport and theatre have many parallels, in terms of the shared experience – this is something the play explores so well, isn’t it?

Gwilym Lee (GS): “We need these national moments of togetherness because when have them, you realise how brilliant this country is and how great the people in it are and it’s a divided world at the moment, even at times a divided society. When Gareth wrote that Dear England letter, it was a galvanizing moment, encouraging people to come together. There’s something about this country and when we do come together, it’s brilliant and has power and strength and it can be glorious. I think that’s why this play has such power because it taps into that collective consciousness and hopefully that’s what audiences take away from it. There’s hope, there’s joy, there’s power in being together.”

Liz White (Dr PG): “On a very base level, all of those things say you’re not alone. Someone else is there having the same experience as you, it’s so powerful.”

Gwilym Lee (GS): “There are a lot of parallels, sport is about performance, we’re dealing with fear. I was scared about taking on this job, I read the script and thought ‘yes, you’ve got to take on your fears and go for it’. Put yourself in the uncomfortable position and see what happens!”

Dear England opens at Lowry on Thursday 29 May and runs until Sunday 29 June.

The post Dear England cast reveal their approach to playing well known faces on stage appeared first on Quays Life.

Knowing what we know now about the show’s phenomenal global success it is hard to imagine just how experimental placing a puppet centre-stage in a major production was at the time. Morpurgo describes it as ‘making the impossible work’. It is the kind of theatrical magic that is still like gold dust.

What was ground-breaking puppetry in 2007 is no less breathtaking today. Hearts leap when young foal, Joey bounds off stage and back on again, transformed as a fully-grown horse. From the subtle rise and fall of his chest to his athletic leaps and expressive shaking of his ears, Joey is controlled almost imperceptibly by Rianna Ash (head), Chris Milford (heart) and Thomas Goodridge (hind).

It feels fitting that all three of the horse puppets on stage is described as having a heart, because the range of emotions the puppeteers elicit from these life-sized creatures is astonishing. It is a work of imaginative genius that has us rooting for them as if they were truly alive.

But this show is not simply a spectacle. At its centre is Morpurgo’s powerful and moving story of love, loss, friendship, loyalty, family, community and war, which follows the journey of teenager, Albert Narracott (Tom Sturgess) and his horse who are separately enlisted to fight in the French trenches.

The 35-strong cast make for some imposing scenes, heightening the drama through sheer numbers and emotive song, with both chorus and solos by Sally Swanson as The Singer. This new production, directed by Morris with revival director Katie Henry, somehow feels even tighter and more immersive than Marianne Elliott’s original multi-award-winning vision. The action never lets up for a second as the scenes move from a horse-market to a ploughed field; the open sea to the confines of the trenches; an occupied farm to a military hospital.

Rae Smith’s design aids the storytelling through a series of related sketches and animations projected overhead on a screen resembling a torn-out page from the sketch book in which Lieutenant Nicholls (Chris Williams) first captures the galloping freedom of Joey. Further layers are added with effective use of lighting, realistic soundscape and musical soundtrack.

There is no doubt we are at war as the explosion of shells reverberate through the auditorium, coupled with blinding lights, flashes of debris and countless bodies.

The drama hits harder because we know its setting is true. One million horses were taken to France from Britain to support the war effort. Of those only 62,000 were returned – a loss matched by the loss of young men’s lives (and that was just on the British side). The wars still raging today provide further resonance and pause for thought. Is it any wonder there was barely a dry eye in the house?

War Horse is the most popular play in the National Theatre’s history and judging from the emotional response to the opening of this new production it may well be the most powerful play of this century. Don’t miss it.

War Horse is a show for all ages from children aged 10+. If you’re thinking of taking children along, this is what our 12-year-old theatre buddy had to say:

“I liked War Horse because it had so many different views of World War I. I think it is good for someone my age because I can empathise but I also know it is just a show even though it does feel real. Also, because I have done WWI in school – I remembered places and could understand the setting so it resonated with me.

“The action was brilliant, the emotion could be felt, the puppeteers were great, the sound effects made it feel more real, and the graphics brought it all together – everything was just what you want to see.

“I think Michael Morpurgo or someone he knows must have had that kind of relationship with a horse because it was so heartfelt”.

War Horse is at The Lowry, Salford from 18 – 28 September 2024 to before continuing on tour until November 2025. Age recommendation 10+

The post War Horse – New UK and Ireland Tour: Review appeared first on Quays Life.

This National Theatre production starts out fully rooted in grim reality when a middle-aged man returns to the location of his upbringing for his father’s funeral. While escaping to find some solitude he stumbles across an old lady that he first met on his 12th birthday. We then see this boy walking through the woods, discovering his dad’s stolen car and a dead body in the driver’s seat. Forced by his father to leave the area he meets a girl, Lettie Hempstock, and they become instant friends. The boy struggles with friends at school, preferring to spend his time reading fantasy novels such as The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and Alice in Wonderland. The themes of these books cross-over into this play with the idea of there being a mundane gateway between worlds. In this instance, it is a duck pond (or ocean as Lettie calls it).

Embarking on adventures in the forest Lettie and the boy manage to allow an evil creature to come to this world. Charlie Brooks, best known for playing EastEnders schemer, Janine Butcher, is wonderfully cast as Ursula, the witch/new tenant from another dimension. She manages to be generous, fun and sweet in front of the dad and his daughter (Laurie Ogden) yet mean and scary when alone with the boy. Both Kier Ogilvy (the boy) and Millie Hikasa (Lettie) make convincing innocent children having to deal with uncertainty, peril and change.

This thought-provoking spectacular show gives us many conundrums to consider. How do we determine who we are? Can our face really define us when it changes over time? Did these events really happen like this or are the children using their imagination to battle their grief? Did we really enjoy eating Pop-Tarts in the 1980’s?

Trevor Fox plays the dad struggling to come to terms with the loss of his wife and how he is managing to bring up his children when he can’t manage to keep track of his neck ties or make toast without burning it. His affable performance suddenly turns chilling in a bathroom scene.

The rest of the cast are also on form with the powerful presence of Flinty Williams grabbing everyone’s attention as Old Mrs Hempstock and Kemi-Bo Jacobs bringing emotional depth to Ginnie Hempstock.

Jarring and intense sound and music composed by Jherek Bischoff combined with the impressive woodland set and gigantic puppets make this show an immersive experience. The slick direction by Katy Rudd has the show moving along at a great pace and her inclusion of some clever magic tricks keeps the audience captivated throughout. This is an extraordinary event and I thoroughly recommend you dive into this ocean.

The National Theatre’s production of The Ocean at the End of the Lane is at The Lowry, Salford from 12 December 2022 to 8 January 2023. Age guidance 12+.

Read our interview with author Neil Gaiman.

The post The Ocean at the End of the Lane: Review appeared first on Quays Life.

The book is loosely based on your childhood. What was the starting point?

Neil: “The book began with me wanting to try and explain to my wife where I grew up and what that world was like. She could take me to her childhood home because it’s still the same, but I couldn’t take her to where I grew up [in East Grinstead] because the place had long since been demolished; lots of lovely neat little housing estates covered the gardens and the fields and lanes. So for me it was kind of an effort to try and evoke a past and a sense of place. An interesting side of it for me too was that I realised that I hadn’t heard, for a very long time, the Sussex accent of my childhood. Mrs Weller came in and cleaned once a week and Mr Weller came in and did the gardens. They were probably in their 80s and they had proper Sussex accents – almost like a West Country burr. I resolved to write a novel with that in too”.

How did you create the Hempstocks?

Neil: “I was told by my mother – quite erroneously, I discovered, when I did my research – that the farm half-way down our lane was in the Doomsday Book. And that was the start of the Hempstocks in my head; who they were and what I wanted to do with them”.

Do you find writing about family especially fascinating?

Neil: “I don’t think I’ve ever been able to avoid writing about family, even when I thought I was writing about something else. Whether it’s biological family or the family we make. In the novel I created a semi-fictional family for myself, and in the play version it was one step further away from my family, which I think looking back on is incredibly healthy! But the boy is definitely me”.

The play received amazing reviews when it premiered. Without any spoilers, do you have any favourite moments?

Neil: “There is something astounding about the moment when they enter the ocean. That completely fascinates me. And you’re going to see miracles made out of bits of rubbish and old plastic bags and nightmarish birds beyond your imagination. It still takes me by surprise every time I watch”.

Is it true that you were so moved by the play when you saw it in rehearsals that you cried?

Neil: “I saw the first full run through. About 10 minutes from the end I had tears running down my face. I thought that this was terribly embarrassing and I was discreetly trying to flick them away”.

You describe yourself as a storyteller. What inspired you to be a writer?

Neil: “I’m not sure that all writers are frustrated performers, but for me it was the joy in getting to be all of the characters. As a writer you get to do that. Being a kid who loved books I could think of nothing cooler than giving people the pleasure that I got”.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane is at The Lowry from 12 December 2022 to 8 January 2023 Age guidance 12+. Read our review of this extraordinary event.

The post “You’re going to see miracles made out of bits of rubbish” -Neil Gaiman appeared first on Quays Life.

I enjoyed reading Mark Haddon’s best-selling novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, almost 20 years ago and was intrigued to find out how the book had been adapted for the stage. I was not disappointed: it is a masterpiece in acting and choreography, wrapped up with an incredible high tech stage set which creates a sharp insight into the mind and perceptions of a young man who sees the world differently.

The story centres around Christopher Boone, a neurodiverse teenager who discovers his neighbour’s dog stabbed to death and determines to find the culprit (using his ‘detecting skills’, learnt from his intense reading of Sherlock Holmes). This might sound like a rather dark and disturbing ‘who dunnit’, and yes – there is shadow and anguish for the main characters throughout. However, that is only one element of the play – we are presented with humour throughout, and what we are really being provided with is an insight into the mind of someone neuro-divergent and seeing the world from his perspective.

David Breed is superb as Christopher, conveying his ‘otherness’ with astonishing energy and sensitivity, showing what it must be like to live in a world where you can’t bear to be touched, you have no friends except for a pet rat, you understand facts but not feelings, and simply cannot lie. His performance conveys Christopher’s vulnerability but also his capacity to find the magical within a world that may seem to us just rather mundane.

Near the start of the play, we witness Christopher’s father telling him his mother is dead. He only discovers she isn’t when he finds a cache of her letters hidden in his father’s bedroom – a scene which, under Marianne Elliott’s highly inventive direction, powerfully evokes emotional turmoil as the letters cascade down over him in a whirl of illuminated words. We then witness Christopher’s journey of discovery to find out that the things he knows and loves might not be as simple as they seem – truth and lies and issues of trust are key in the overall story.

This tour of the show is supported by Access All Areas, who aim to make disruptive theatre with arts who have autism or a learning disability. The full cast is incredibly strong, and works together in complete synchronisation. Christopher’s father, Tom Peters demonstrates the great strain of parenting and protecting a child who is ‘different’, ranging from sheer anger to softness and complete love.

Kate Kordel, who plays Christopher’s mother, conveys a very moving sense of maternal conflict: she loves her son but can’t live with him, leading to some heart-breaking scenes. The wonderful Rebecca Root shows grace and calm common sense as Christopher’s teacher, and also acts as the narrator of the go-to place in Christopher’s mind to calm him down in the difficult situations he find himself in.

The stage set initially seems so simple – basically a square white box, but as the show progresses, you realise it is an exceptionally high tech set, filled with hundreds of LED lights to show you Christopher’s thoughts and emotions to help you to learn more about what is going on inside his head. Designer, Bunny Christie and lighting designer, Paule Constable use a variety of techniques from strobe lighting to words flying across the stage via digital projection, to allow us to experience Christopher’s struggle with sensory exhaustion and feeling overwhelmed in a world that might seem calm to others. In the first act, we see Christopher building his train track to keep him calm, and watch how the complexity and chaos of that intensifies with his increasing levels of frustration and confusion.

Movement Directors, Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett deserve particular praise for the expertly choreographed production. Timing of actors is precise throughout in terms of both movement and spoken word, and the ways in which the cast helps Christopher move around the stage create truly magical moments, whether it be floating in outer space, or literally walking the vertical walls of the stage. The way the rest of the cast help move him around the stage helps you realise that every part of this play is coming from the mind of Christopher, and without him there wouldn’t be a story.

The Opera House was packed last night, and it was wonderful to see this modern masterpiece of a play being watched by all ages – from teenagers to the elderly, and everyone in between. I was taken on an emotional rollercoaster, but left with a sense of joy (note to readers – don’t leave the auditorium too soon ….as many did last night) and it’s a play that is going to stay in my thoughts for a long time to come.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is at the Opera House, Manchester from 8-12 March 2022 before continuing on its UK tour.

The post The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time: Review appeared first on Quays Life.

In Manchester we’ve recently seen Jodie Prenger breathe new life into Mike Leigh’s Abigail’s Party as over-bearing hostess Beverly. Now she leads the National Theatre’s new production of A Taste of Honey, which opens at the Lowry in Salford, the city where Shelagh Delaney penned and set her working-class drama more than 60 years ago.

There is no doubt Prenger is a huge box-office draw, and rightly so. She brings likeability to well-trodden and troubled characters; she has great comic timing and is never less than mesmerising on stage. Here, she embraces the brashness, humour and often ignorance of single-mum, Helen, while injecting a genuine vulnerability to her performance, giving the character genuine humanity the audience can relate to.
In her hands the dialogue feels fresh, fast and edgily cutting. It makes us look again at Delaney’s script and realise what an achievement it was for any woman at that time, let alone a working-class woman with little education.

Delaney left school at the age of 15 and wrote this play in two weeks aged 18 after her first visit to the theatre. There is a rawness to the writing that hasn’t lessened with time. Salford may have changed, but the gritty humour of survival is still recognisable.
The story centres on a mother, Helen and daughter, Jo, who drift from one grotty flat to the next, as Helen’s fancy takes her. The pair have a shouty relationship. At one point, art student, Geoffrey asks: ‘Why are you always shouting?’ to which Jo replies: ‘Because we like it.’

As struggling teenager, Jo, Gemma Dobson is annoyingly shouty at times – appropriately just like an angry teen. When her mum runs off with Peter (Tom Varey), a cocky drunk, half her age, Jo finds herself in the arms of handsome Black sailor, Jimmie who promises love and marriage. Six months later she is living unconventionally with Geoffrey, a confused young gay man who also offers to marry her.

In one sense Jo is bursting through conventions and ignorance of a previous generation and marking out a new future. In another she is reliving her mother’s mistakes.

Hildegard Bechtler’s industrial grey set captures this dramatic starkness while director, Bijan Sheibani adds an extra dimension to the story with a filmic soundtrack from live musicians playing piano, drums and double-bass on stage. Prenger, well-known for her musical stage roles in Calamity Jane and Oliver, opens with a sultry song by the piano; Durone Stokes adds joy with his romantic love-song as Romeo sailor, Jimmie; and Stuart Thompson, making an impressive professional stage debut as Geoffrey, lightens the mood when he dances on stage for the first time to ‘Mad about the Boy’. It’s entertaining, bold and, like the best soap opera, leaves us wanting to know what happens next.

The National Theatre on tour: A Taste of Honey is at The Lowry, Salford Quays from 13-21 September 2019 and tours the UK until 16 November 2019. Age guidance 13+ This performance includes smoking using non-nicotine E-cigarettes and E-Cigars.

The post A Taste of Honey with Jodie Prenger: Review appeared first on Quays Life.

Can you tell us about the plot of Home, I’m Darling?

Home, I’m Darling takes place in a 50s world but it’s set now in 2019. I think it manages to touch on many subjects that are very relevant today, plus, ultimately, it’s a love story.

How would you describe your character, Judy?

She’s somebody who has a sort of forensic talent for numbers but she’s lost sight of that talent because she retreats from the world after becoming disenchanted at work. She’s in a loving relationship with her husband, Johnny – and ultimately that’s what saves her. Judy gets stuck into vintage living, adopting a 50s lifestyle, so it starts off as a quite fun quirk, but she ends up getting trapped in it all.

What do you most enjoy about playing Judy?

It’s been a great experience for me because I’ve been developing the play for six years now. I’ve done workshops and improvised situations, then Laura [Wade, the writer] has gone off and written it. So, it’s been written for me, which is a great privilege. I just find Judy a very easy fit, as you’d expect when it’s been me and Laura working on it for years and years, and I enjoy that I get to play lots of different things, lots of different states, because it’s not just funny. And I like getting to dance in the show a bit as well.

Did you take dancing lessons to prepare for it?

[Laughs] I’m unteachable when it comes to things like that. You can teach me the moves, but I’ll always do what I want. I love dancing but I’m not really somebody who can pick up choreography. I just do my own thing, but I enjoy it and fortunately we’ve got Siubhan Harrison, who is a gorgeous dancer, in the cast so she does the proper dancing.

How does the show speak to contemporary audiences?

I think nostalgia is a very relevant theme. There’s a lot of looking back to a time that maybe never really existed and I think a lot of people feel they’d like to retreat from the business of the modern world. There’s also a subplot in the play that touches on ‘What are the boundaries at work? What are you allowed to do, what counts as sexual harassment and what doesn’t?’ That feels very relevant now, as does the theme of a modern relationship and working out ways of communicating – with both of you being in charge at different times and whatever works for a particular couple, not being defined by the performance of marriage, which isn’t always right for the people who are in the marriage. There’s also the idea of trying to live a fantasy life and how, if it stops being good, you have to be honest and live in the real world.

Is there anything about the 50s you think you’d have enjoyed?

I’m so into the clothes. I’m very into vintage clothes so I do appreciate the costumes in the show very much. I also really like the interiors – the furniture on set, the curtains… I love it all. And my favourite outfit? It’s the dressing gown Judy has but you couldn’t really wear that out, could you?

What mod cons would you most miss if you were transported back in time?

I don’t think I would mind only living with a radio and, as Judy does, DVDs of old films. I don’t think I’d mind that at all and I don’t do any social networking because I want to keep my head less busy. [Laughs] But I do think I’d miss Netflix for sure and I enjoy being in various WhatsApp groups, which I guess is social networking in a sense. There’s a lot to love about modern life, isn’t there?

How does it feel to be taking the show back to Theatr Clywd, where it first started out last June?

I love that place so much. It was such a great experience opening it there and the audience kind of made the show because when you first do a show the audience response helps define your performance. You go with the things they go with and you do more of that the next time, so I feel it was very much made in Wales. I’m really excited to go back there. I got to know it a bit and I want to do more exploring. My husband is coming to stay with me and my parents are going to babysit the children, so we can have a proper look around. It feels lovely to be taking the show back there at the end; it feels neat, like a kind of homecoming. Plus this time we’re in the main house, not the smaller auditorium, so it will feel different.

Have you performed at The Lowry, Salford Quays before or visited Salford?

I don’t know Manchester as much as I’d like to so I’m taking my mum along and I have serious plans to do some exploring. My father-in-law Trevor Peacock did a lot at the Royal Exchange so my husband has lots of memories of Manchester and I feel I have lots of links with it without having actually spent much time there.

You’ve done lots of stage work before this. What have been your favourite jobs?

Judy is definitely the highlight but apart from her I really enjoyed doing Terry Johnson’s Dead Funny a couple of years ago in the West End. I played a very different character in a very different play, but I loved doing it. We’d get great audiences for that and I played quite a sad and bitter character. It was a great part in a great play with a great company. Before that I enjoyed doing The Seagull with Kristin Scott Thomas and Carey Mulligan at the Royal Court. I’ve had some brilliant experiences on stage and I feel you get to know your cast more than you do on filming jobs.

What’s the one thing you couldn’t be on tour without?

Family. That’s why I’m taking my husband, my children and my mum along at various points. Also, I really like going for a jog during the daytimes so I’d have to say my running trainers, plus I like having a radio to listen to and a good book to get back to. It takes a while to unwind after a performance, even if you have a couple of drinks, so I like to read. 

You’ve been with the show from the beginning. Will it be hard saying goodbye to Judy when the tour ends?

I think I’m going to be gutted. When actors say that I usually think ‘Oh shut up!’ but in this case I’m going to be really sad. It will be hard to say goodbye to Judy, but I suspect me and Laura Wade will work together on and off until we’re old ladies. That’s my hunch so as long as I’m still doing Laura’s writing I’ll be very happy.

The National Theatre and Theatr Clwyd’s critically acclaimed co-production of Home, I’m Darling embarks on a limited UK Tour this Spring, stopping off at The Lowry on 23-27 April 2019.

Read our review of Home, I’m Darling at The Lowry.

The post Katherine Parkinson is the perfect 50s housewife in Home, I’m Darling appeared first on Quays Life.

This doesn’t just feel like the aftermath of a bloody civil war, but the end of the earth as we know it.

Rae Smith’s set design creates a dark and brutal world, where even the trees have mutated into steel pole trunks with withered rags for leaves. The effect captures something between a Gothic sci-fi movie and a nihilistic video game –  the audience, made up largely of teenagers, go wild for it.

If director, Rufus Norris wanted to capture Shakespeare for a new generation it seems he has done it. Being a GCSE set-text always helps to get bums on seats, but it does nothing to keep a young audience quiet, no matter how many notices you put on the door stating no confectionary is to be consumed during the show. Here for the most part they are silent and transfixed.

We hear laddish excitement when Macbeth leans towards Lady Macbeth for a passionate embrace, and I marvel how the actors keep straight faces. Thankfully, there is more killing than kissing and the gamer generation quickly settle down. It’s clear the gruesome action that follows has them hooked.

While this production may not be one for purists, it is a visually stunning retelling that puts violence and power at the core. And although the witches’ scenes are cut back, their presence is memorable – darting up and down poles and conjuring supernatural beings with doll-face horror masks.

Scottish actor, Michael Nardone, makes a strong and believable Macbeth. We first meet him, decapitating a man with a machete before holding up and bagging his bloody, severed head. We don’t believe he needs much coaxing into evil deeds by Lady Macbeth. Kirsty Besterman’s performance captures Lady Macbeth’s frailty from the start. She’s propelled forward by Macbeth’s prophetic fortune but there is a sense she doesn’t really know what evil she’s opened-up until her hands are plunged into Duncan’s sticky blood.

The futility of it all weighs heavy even before we get to Macbeth’s ‘brief candle’ soliloquy. On taking the crown Macbeth still lives in a dirty prefab with bare walls. He holds his armour together with packing tape and serves wine to guests out of old plastic catering bottles. The murders and zombie hauntings seem a whole lot of bother for what appears to be a red suit and sequinned dress.

Still, as we all know, there is a lot more blood to be spilled before the final curtain. If Shakespeare’s language made this descent into hellishness seem poetic, this production assures us it is not.

★ ★ ★ ★

Macbeth is at The Lowry, Salford Quays from  29 September – 6 October 2018. Visit the National Theatre website for full details of the tour.

Read our interview with National Theatre Artistic Director, Rufus Norris about the show.

The post National Theatre’s Macbeth tour review appeared first on Quays Life.

Artistic director, Rufus Norris talks to Quays Life about anarchy, uncertainty and why the heart of this classic Shakespearean tragedy resonates more than ever today.

What can audiences expect from this production of Macbeth?

It’s in a modern setting. It’s set in Scotland, but it’s Scotland in perhaps five- or six-years’ time after a long civil war, where there’s been a complete breakdown of everything we take for granted in society. So all the things that were true of Shakespeare’s Macbeth – set in 11th century Scotland in times of warfare like lack of trust, rebellion, survival – are still very much at the centre of the play, but put into a context that is a bit more resonant for now.

What was the decision behind that?

Because the play is on the curriculum of so many schools it felt very important to us that young people seeing the play possibly for the first time get the text, they get what Shakespeare wrote, but that they’re seeing it in a context which feels like it has some relevance to them.

Can you elaborate on that a little?

Most people now have access to huge amounts of information, which includes what’s happening in the rest of the world. With many young people if you ask ‘What’s going on in Syria?’ they could tell you or if you ask ‘What is causing the refugee crisis?’ they’d have an idea. They’ll have a sense of what’s happening in Libya, the Balkan crisis, Afghanistan, the Congo, even the ‘Jungle’ in Calais – it’s no big distance away and yet it’s a world of plastic and survival and fiefdoms and alliances being made. Probably more than ever, young people understand the current poverty of leadership that’s going on and the nature of power. They will all have an opinion about Donald Trump, Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson or Theresa May. So seeing leaders having to make difficult choices under pressure in this play will hopefully make them feel it has a little more to do with the world they’re living in and certainly the world many other people are living in not that far away from here.

What challenges does Macbeth present to you as a director?

One of the challenges it presents is the fact it’s extraordinarily well-known, which means we as audiences and artists bring a lot of baggage to it that you have to clear out of the way. You have to really dig into the script: ‘What is Shakespeare saying here?’ So we’ve had a lot of support, from one academic in particular, Paul Prescott, who has been very helpful. Really understanding the text helps clear away some of that baggage. The witches and the metaphysical aspects of the play are a particular challenge. There are superstitions that people will understand now but our Christian theology, which has been sitting over so much of the way we have built our morality or how we understand the world over the last few hundred years, didn’t really exist in the time of the Macbeths in 11th century in Scotland. There are references to God in the play, but not very many. Macduff talks about God, the Doctor talks about God, but that’s about it. In the broader sense, it’s about trying to find a context for the metaphysical aspects which isn’t too ‘stereotypical-spooky-witch’.

How have you achieved that?

Probably the biggest liberty we’ve taken with the script is to cut quite a lot of what the witches say. One reason is that in the original – or what we’re told is the original because who really knows what the original is? – it’s generally agreed that quite a lot of the witches’ stuff was not written by Shakespeare at all, it was written by Middleton. Beyond that you’ve got to bear in mind that James I had just written a book about witches and the damning of them in a way that can only be described as ‘Protestant misogyny’ following the reign of Elizabeth I. So the idea of these three gnarly old women stirring the cauldron doesn’t feel to me like it says much about our society now. But the idea that nature – in some ways what the witches in this production represent – is in some way giving us our just desserts, does.

Why did you want to tackle Macbeth in particular now?

This is a period where there are no world wars and there have been no world wars for a while. But the number of civil wars that are going on all over the world I don’t think has ever been greater, with societies turning in on themselves and our own society turning in on itself. What the Brexit debate has laid bare is our propensity to attack each other, and with the rise of social media and the power of anonymity that comes with that – allowing people to indulge in hate speech or whatever you want to call it – we’re coming closer to the potential for anarchy. It’s also interesting, I think, to look at leaders with humanity, to look at the challenges they’re under, the isolation of that and the loneliness that can come with it. I think the primary purpose of any storytelling is to invite the audience to stand in the shoes of the people that they’re watching to increase our understanding of humanity and other people’s circumstances. Right now I don’t see a lot of that going on in debate, so I think it’s a very pertinent play in that way.

Revisiting the production for the UK & Ireland tour, are you discovering new things?

Absolutely, yes. One simple physical thing is that we’ve gone from a Greek theatre to proscenium arch theatres and that does change what you can do visually. Also, we’ve recast it. Every actor brings a different intelligence and a different perspective, such as the difference between Rory Kinnear and Michael Nardone. Rory is an incredible intellect, a great thinker, and he can illuminate thoughts fantastically. Michael comes from a much rougher background so he’s much more of a warrior in many ways and he’s Scottish so there’s a sort of integrity and authenticity that he brings to it which is completely different. Consequently, different things are illuminated and as a director it’s fantastic because if your antennae are alert to the fact that your Macbeth and Lady Macbeth will take it in a certain direction then your Macduff will be this kind of man. You pull the scene around depending on what you’re discovering. The major mise-en-scène doesn’t alter much because obviously that has to be planned beforehand, but that’s normal for any play whether you’re doing the first or tenth version.

What do you see as the importance of taking plays around the country?

For one we’re a National Theatre and we have to remember that. The subsidy that we get, and which we’re very privileged to get, enables us to do many things and to contribute significantly to the creative industries, which in turn contribute massively to the economy of the country and the health of our culture. That has to be nationwide; it can’t just be this island in the middle of London. London is populated by people who come from all over the country but the subsidy we get should be used to deliver work to the area we’re paid to cover, the whole country and not just the South Bank.

Obviously we have to have a base and it’s where our work starts, then there are different ways of delivering the show out to the people. It’s a complete no-brainer; as soon as we decided to do the play we knew we’d do a show, then a touring version which will run for much longer than it did in London, and appropriately so. Theatres are community centres and to just put on work in London is the epitome of inequality of opportunity.

Any kind of radical reinterpretation is going to have some detractors but do you welcome the debate they create?

Debate is always good. It’s no secret that this production was given a bit of a kicking by some quarters when we opened it in London, though it was not by the audience. There are many reasons why that may have happened and the tour gives us an opportunity to address some of them. I never like it when people hate the work. You want to engage them, but debate is great. The whole point of telling stories is to get people communicating with each other. What we’ve discovered with NT Live is that it’s often about the relationship between the audience and the audience, not the audience and the actor – that the debates between cinemagoers can be as vibrant as they are in the theatre. It’s great when something encourages discussion. I hope that many young people will come and see the tour and take it back to their friends or their classrooms to debate with their teachers the rights and wrongs of the choices we’ve made. It all enhances their understanding of what a great piece of work Macbeth is.

A lot of young people already saw it at the National Theatre. What were you most pleased or impressed by about their reaction to it?

There’s an old cliché which goes ‘Eyes on stalks, not bums on seats’ and what I was most keen to see was that they were reacting to it. They were engaged and felt like it spoke to them. That absolutely played out as I’d hoped. They were deeply engaged with it as we found from the feedback we received. Sometimes I’d go and sit at the back of the circle or wander around during the interval and listen to what they were saying and it was great to hear them arguing about this, that and the other, not just chatting or getting their mobile phones out. They were fully engaged with what they were seeing; they were getting it, they were receiving it. They were understanding that this is for them and about them, and about the world they’re living in.

The National Theatre’s Macbeth is at The Lowry, Salford Quays from 29 September to 6 October 2018. 

The post National Theatre Artistic Director, Rufus Norris on creating a Macbeth for our times appeared first on Quays Life.