Reviews
Stoke a Love Story 2019
The Stage
Stoke, a Love Story is a richly allusive and playfully intelligent drama from writer Kat Boon and director Kat Hughes of Potboiler Theatre. It’s a poignant yet enjoyably unsentimental piece of theatre about living in a city that’s been “left behind”, a place of post-industrial malaise known mainly to the rest of the country for being Robbie Williams’ hometown (as well as the sneered-at subject of ‘crappiest UK city’ listicles and a documentary about the ravages of monkey dust).
Boon deftly blends metaphorical fantasy into the socio-economical commentary, as five divergent but interconnected characters navigate a Potteries-based apocalypse of sorts – as a thick smog descends and the earth cracks open (throwing up old ceramic remnants), the coal and clay once integral to the city’s mostly moribund industrial identity resurface in the form of a “giant slag heap next to Arnold Clark”.
The writing is nimble and lyrical, with lovely evocations of Northern Soul music and dance (featuring impressive moves from the entire cast) and Stoke’s ardent spiritualist movement, plus a brief re-creation of a rave at the once-famous Shelley’s Laserdome.
Under Hughes’ direction, the actors – all with impeccable Stokie accents – make dynamic use of Longton Methodist Central Hall’s curving balcony (though the high-ceilinged acoustics sometimes snatch the dialogue) and there’s great support from a live band delivering original compositions, including a sweetly memorable song about the act of potting.
Beyond the specifics of Stoke, it cleverly delineates the importance of memory and moving on, the complicated tie between people and places.
Tale Trail to Wind in the willows
The Guardian
2019
Something in the concision of the script, the bubbly performances and the playful direction gives this 45-minute version an uplifting air of adventure, jeopardy and discovery.
As is often the case, it’s the toddlers who strike gold. An immersive show for the under-fives, Tale Trail to the Wind in the Willows is a kind of primer for the New Vic’s main stage production, distilling the Kenneth Grahame favourite into a two-hander that focuses on the newly awoken Mole and the nice but reckless Toad. Something in the concision of the script, the bubbly performances and the playful direction gives this 45-minute version an uplifting air of adventure, jeopardy and discovery.
Staged by Katherine Hughes in a repurposed workshop, Jill Rezzano’s script sticks to the outline of Theresa Heskins’s adaptation in the main theatre as we are led through a series of rooms designed by Laura Clarkson. We fold blankets in Mole’s bedroom, rattle flowers near a moored boat, polish the silverware in Toad Hall and hatch a plot for a prison breakout. The generosity of actors Alexandra Daszewski and Michael Hugo – both excellent – makes the children think they’re driving the action (the nursery class I saw it with was wide-eyed) and that everything rides on their moral choices: is the speed-loving Toad as innocent as he claims and should we forgive the usurping woodland creatures in time for Christmas? The show’s transitions through the seasons are magical and, as we return Mole to her hibernation, its sense of completion deeply rewarding.