A creative writing competition was held inviting local writers to create a short monologue inspired by the play which was due to open the Bolton Octagon's new season in it's new building, but sadly COVID 19 stopped play. The ten winning entries had their writings recorded by local professional actors and actresses and a selection will be broadcast on BBC Radio Manchester. So far the first four have been made available, and so welcome to "One Night In Bolton".
The opening monologue is a short performance poem read by Claire Moore and written by Lisa Allen, titled, "The Constance Carroll Smile" in which a young lady in the 1980s gets ready for a girlie night out on the tiles. The poem manages to shoehorn in so many local and contemporary references that sadly, unless you are from the area or were a teenage girl in the 1980s the poem is of little interest. Following this is "Light's Out" by Bill Hodson and read by Daon Broni. Once again very specific local history knoweldge is needed, however, at least here there is a story with a sympathetic protagonist. The short piece talks about Bolton Wanderers football club and the disaster of 1946. I found this piece to be quite engaging and interesting, and able to relate to the character.
Another complete change of mood for the third piece, "Grandma's Chippy Night" by Julie Worthington and read by Claire Moore. Here we are given a story, with a hint of humour; a reminiscence of a family tradition of taking the short walk to grandma's house for fish and chips and an evening watching the telly. Littered with local street names and references that Boltonians would be able to relate to, the story has a lovely tag to bring us bang up to date into 2020.
The fourth and so far final pieve available to listen to is "Nowt Worth More Than Sand" by Ibraham Ismail and read by Daon Broni. Celebrating the diversity of Bolton's ethnic community, this monologue tells the story of a summer night in Gilnow (an area of Bolton), when a young boy sees his mother sitting on her bed looking at her jewelry. He askes her which is the most precious and she then tells hin the story of how his grandfather travelled across the Somalian border illegally into Djibouti to see her, and all he could give her as a present was the sand from Somalia. She has kept this sand in a kerchief with her ever since. It's sympathetically told, and for me is the strongest of the four pieces thus far.
The monologues are available to listen to for free on the Bolton Octagon's website, and I look forward to hearing the next six as soon as they become available.
Reviewer - Chris Benchley
on - 14/8/20
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