Not presented as a double-bill, but for the purposes of this review, for reasons which will become apparent, I shall treat them as such.
Both plays - in their full lengths - were presented at the main theatre of UCEN Manchester's City College by the third year graduating students of the Arden Theatre School's Acting degree course. These are both long and involved scripts, requiring much from their casts, and as different as they are, they are also remarkably similar too.
Both plays are set in Manchester about Mancunians, both are Victorian period dramas - with less than 50 years separating them; and both are written by contemporary Scottish playwright Rona Munro. And since both plays were being performed on the same stage on the same day, the same single composite set was used for both.
The first play of the day was 'Scuttlers', set around the end of the 19th century in Ancoats (an area of Manchester), it tells the story of two rival Scuttler gangs. [Scuttlers being the local name given to a neighbourhood-based youth gang from working class areas who thrive from recreational violence towards non-gang members.- London had similar, but these were called Hooligans, and were known for their avant-garde and snazzy dress style]. Here however, we have the 'Tigers' and the 'Prussia Street' gangs challenge and fight each other in much the same way perhaps as the 'Sharks' and 'Jets' do in 'West Side Story'.
The play shows the life of these youths whose violent hand-to-mouth existence encourages not only strong bonds and comradeship, but also jealousies and grudges which, perhaps petty to us, were all-too-real and magnified for them. Set against the lack of work, the closing of the mills, there seems little or no way out for these miscreants, and certainly the play offers nothing in the way of hope. Even when members of the same family - brother pitted against sister - are fighting each other as members of different gangs, there is no light at the end of the tunnel.
The language of the play is full of swearing and cursing, but the writing of the play was, for this reviewer at least, less than perfect. A poor script that would not pass muster perhaps if it had been written by an unknown. However, the cast, along with director Rod Dixon, did everything they could with the text, and built tension and drama nicely as well as creating some very believable and sympathetic characters. The fight sequences were very realistic. (credit to Kevin McCurdy). This was a dynamically satisfying production, which built well to its all-too-obvious tragic conclusion, with strong and powerful performances throughout, and was performed through without interval for its entire 90 minutes.
Where the play didn't really work as well as it ought to have done was firstly in the set design - two columns of industrial scaffolding with walk-boards on different levels worked...but only just. There were many short scenes in this play, and sometimes a little more visual help was needed for us to understand each location more clearly and quickly. What it didn't do was convey a Victorian industrial slum, even scaffolding was too clinical and clean. My second comment falls with the actors. There were places throughout where I was struggling to hear and / or understand what was being said. I have said it before, and no doubt I shall say it thousands of times again, but contemporary theatre training does not place the same emphasis and importance on vocal training as it did in my day, and that is such a pity, since without proper projection and diction, it might as well be in mime.
Overall a powerful play performed with energy and focus throughout, delivering the required punches with aplomb.
The evening offering was an adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's first novel, 'Mary Barton'. It tells the story of not just the titular character but those around her, emphasising the differences in the class structure and is set between 1839 to 1842, with again, all-too-obvious tragic consequences. Many of the comments I made about 'Scuttlers' are also just as relevant here too. First in this regard is the actual writing itself. The play presents many - far too many - 'coincidences' / 'contrivances' which we as audience are meant to completely buy into , but are totally unnatural, and sadly the direction (Misha Duncan-Barry) did nothing to hide or ameliorate this situation. The adaptation is very wordy, fortunately capturing with ease the milieu of the piece, but conversely many of the casts' mannerisms and gait did not fit the period in which the play was set. The ensemble work was laudable as was their commitment to this script; however it was a rather pedestrian production overall, sadly without any real highs or lows, with the whole being given a very undulating nature. Even the drama and jeopardy that a mill fire creates failed to lift beyond a mezzoforte (to use musical terminology). Duncan-Barry did however manage to highlight some of the plays more light-hearted moments nicely. Overall though, the pace of this play was slow, and at three hours (including interval) is far too long, and in need of some drastic cutting.
My second comment is once again audibility and diction. Again there was much of the dialogue that was spoken far too quietly or not projected sufficiently to those - like myself- seated on the back row of the auditorium. And finally, my third comment to both plays, the set. Here these two columns of industrial scaffolding was not optimal at all, and for this reviewer at least, did not work. Unlike 'Scuttlers', where with a little imagination, it could be made to work; here it simply detracted sadly. One piece of scaffolding being used for both the upper-class home and the prison, without even trying to dress the set in any way more than the bare tubes. I could see nothing of either a working-class or upper-class mid 19th century Manchester here, even using my imagination!
I could nit-pick further perhaps by noticing that the babies were not being handled like babies since they were just all-too-obviously small bundles of material, and the red dress was nothing more than another piece of material, however those things are the concern the props / costume department more.
This production had a very D.H.Lawrence-esque feel to it. Working-class people, their lives, loves, trials and tribulations, set against a society that neither understands nor cares. The only thing lacking was the sex! Once again though I must congratulate the actors for their commitment to and their believing in this script with as much conviction as they did, and despite my misgivings on the script, once again managed to bring about some powerful and sympathetic performances.
It is credit indeed to the students themselves that they were able to create such characters and make me engage in both these scripts as much as I was able to - their talents obvious and undeniable. It was such a shame that I was unable to relate to or emote with either play as much as I would have liked to have done.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 12.5.23
on - 12.5.23
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