An August Bank Holiday Lark – Northern Broadsides at LiverpoolPlayhouse – 29/04/2014

Barrie Rutter’s company live up to their name by firing a Broadside of Northernness from the stage in Deborah McAndrew’s new play, specially commissioned to coincide with this year’s WW1 centenary commemorations.

In building a tale that speaks of the loss of youth and innocence, McAndrew chooses to show us a slice of life in more idyllic times, as a rural community prepare for their annual village festival before seeing their sons off to the front.

The rush bearing ceremonies, that in times past took place in the August Wakes Weeks, bring the community together in the balmy summer air with the mounting celebrations, preparation of costumes and the building of the rushcart. This year, however, the atmosphere is also tainted with the smell of war as young men from the village are called up.

Whereas in Broadsides’ last visiting production the musical interludes seemed incongruous, here they grow organically out of the story. There is a great deal of Morris dancing accompanied by an onstage band and both music and footwork are impressively authentic. Conrad Nelson worked with the Saddleworth Morris Men to get this right.

As we’ve come to expect from Northern Broadsides, stage designs (here by Lis Evans) are inventive and substantial, and complemented by deft, warm lighting from Mark Howland.

Amidst the preparations for the Rushcart Festival we learn that the Squire’s daughter Mary has the affection of Frank Armitage, but her father doesn’t see him as a fit match. In an effort to show himself worthy of her hand, Frank resolves to join up in the forces along with Mary’s two brothers Edward and William. They’re barely married before Frank has to go back to the barracks.

By the closing pages we have seen the ravages with which war punishes those who are left behind, as they wait to discover whether what will come home is a loved one or a telegram. The story’s destination has a big emotional payoff, while the drama takes the scenic route in getting there. It is the pastoral slowness of the earlier parts of the play that make the ending all the more poignant.

The cast all give spirited performances but most notable among them are charming central roles by Darren Kuppan and Emily Butterfield as Frank and Mary and by Jack Quarton and Ben Burman as Edward and William.

Broadsides founder and Artistic Director Barrie Rutter is a true old school actor-manager and whenever he takes to the boards he is always a commanding figure. Here, both directing and playing the part of the overbearing Squire John Farrar, he is larger than life and a force to be reckoned with.

An August Bank Holiday Lark has been co-produced by Northern Broadsides and The New Vic Newcastle-under-Lyme, where it received its premiere in February. It runs at Liverpool Playhouse until Saturday 3rd May, after which it continues touring via Watford Palace, Oxford Playhouse, Derby Theatre, Cheltenham Everyman, Rose Theatre Kingston and to Oldham Coliseum where it closes on 14th June. The full tour schedule is available at www.northern-broadsides.co.uk

Melody Loses her Mojo – Liverpool Playhouse – 21/09/2013

“Some things are more important than getting off your tits”

(Note: may contain spoilers)

Melody and her younger sister Harmony used to live with foster parents in the lake district, but Melody was too much of a handful and is back in Dumpton Lodge in the city, over a hundred miles away. Her family is now an ad-hoc affair mainly comprising social worker Jackie and Wet Jeff, a residential worker at the lodge. She has adopted herself a brother, Rizla, but he has left the care system now and is trying to make his own way. It isn’t as easy as he thought and he has to resort to ways of making money that he didn’t have in mind.

When Blessing arrives in the lodge, recently sent from Nigeria and yearning to return to her Auntie, the status quo is unbalanced by the friction between her and Melody, made worse by the fact that Rizla fancies his chances with Blessing.

Wet Jeff can’t cope, and plans to take Melody on a trip to Harmony’s birthday party fall apart, leaving Melody more disillusioned than ever with the system. The final straw is the revelation that Harmony is to be adopted by her foster parents. Melody steals the keys to a van and the three set off on a seemingly random journey of escape to the country. What the other two don’t know is that Melody has a plan, and they find themselves complicit in abducting Harmony.

Joining them on the journey is Mojo. Mojo is a rucksack shaped like a monster, given to Melody by Harmony. Mojo is Melody’s good luck charm, companion and confidant. From the outset Mojo takes on a personality of his own, animated by puppeteers who double as Jackie and Wet Jeff, and rather surprisingly lifelike. During the play, Mojo takes on a number of different guises and provides both a mirror to reflect Melody’s emotional states and a means for her to discuss her inner thoughts with the audience.

Melody does lose her Mojo, but it is far more than Mojo that the three of them find along this journey of self discovery.

The story is played out on an ever-moving set made up of gaudily coloured street art and furniture, the fantastical designs and saturated colours sometimes adding to the psychedelic feel of some of the scenes in which the characters seek refuge in drugs and alcohol.

Also portrayed through puppetry is Harmony, and I would defy anyone not to see past the puppeteers and believe that she is very much alive.

“Everybody gets shit dumped on them; not just us” says Rizla. The three central performances of Remmie Milner, Darren Kuppan and Simone James as Melody, Rizla and Blessing are tremendously strong and make a very balanced trio. This is a long and potentially very wordy piece and they achieve a perfect pacing throughout. There are some heavily emotion laden silences in the second act especially which are beautifully timed and in which the very enthusiastic audience held a mesmerised stillness. Keith Saha’s script allows us to see with astonishing clarity the problems that they face and their strategies for coping, but at no point does the play ever reduce itself to becoming preachy or overtly political. What is more important is the opportunity to throw a window open into the minds of young people in care and allow us to think about the added pressures, disappointments and tragedies they face on top of the usual pains of growing up in a harsh world.

Zoe Hunter and Samuel Dutton complete the acting cast with their dual roles as Jackie and Jeff and as physical artists who animate the non-human performances. Their parts are subtly written and blend into the background, but this enables their specialised form of stagecraft to work seamlessly.

The tone is set from the outset by a soundtrack largely performed live on stage by champion beat boxer, Hobbit, accompanied by cellist Hannah Marshall. The pace eases off substantially in the second act, allowing more space for the development of the individual characters’ stories, and for us to fully appreciate just how moving and lyrical the text is.

Here are roundly drawn characters who we cannot help caring about, despite their frailties, failings and outbursts of rage. This is uncompromising writing performed with tremendous energy and conviction and the story it sets before us needs to be told.

The audience at the first performance I attended was balanced heavily toward young people, but the writing and performances should have a very broad appeal. It is a style of work bound to engage with younger audiences, but all theatre lovers should enjoy this piece for its energy, honesty and optimism.

I now add that I have seen this production again two days later and was even more captivated by its magic. Some originally slightly clunky scene changing had been ironed out and was much more fluid, while the pacing was honed even more closely to keep the narrative flowing smoothly. This is a firecracker of a play that deserves to fill houses and ought to be one of the season's hot tickets.

Melody Loses her Mojo is co-produced by 20 Stories High, Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse and Curve Theatre Leicester.

It runs at Liverpool Playhouse until Friday 27th September, after which it tours to Contact Manchester, Curve Leicester, Lawrence Batley Huddersfield and The Key Peterborough.

See www.everymanplayhouse.com and www.20storieshigh.org.uk for details and tour dates.