Jimmie Chin is a local writer, and he writes about his local area and what he knows. Born in 1940 in Middleton (then part of Lancashire), in north Manchester, his plays are full of the local essence of life, with local humour, and plenty of local references for those of us who also live here to recognise too. Many of the street names and areas mentioned in this play were very familiar to me, including the number 59 bus!
I had never seen 'A Different Way Home' before, and expected the play to be more comedic than it actually was. This is essentially a bitter-sweet recollection of love, life, and death, which Chinn subtly and cleverly intertwines with humorous anecdote in order for it not to become 'moribund' (interesting word that, moribund).
What is unusual about this play is that it is, in fact, two separate monologues. In the first act, the longer and more detailed of the two, we see Leslie, a single, middle-aged man, living in a house that hasn't seen any change in decor since it was first furnished. We learn that he lived there with his mother, and that she passed away on Christmas Eve. It is a 70 minute monologue, and during it we laugh, we cry, and we sympathise (or even empathise) with him, in a script that allows us to see his world without prejudice. Performing this daunting task was Ian Fernsome, who obviously had a great affinity with his character, and was a thoroughly engaging and personable actor, giving us a very real and understated performance of a very real person.
After the interval and it was the turn of Leslie's sister, Maureen to tell her side of the coin. Here we see Maureen in black and obviously dressed for a funeral, but the narrative is far less developed, and if anything, too short, and so we don't really get to know or understand Maureen in the same depth as we did Leslie. That is a shame, we needed more from her to understand the family dynamics better. However, no less a talent was found to play Maureen, and Sarah Kirk did an excellent job with what Chinn had given her. [errant cigarette lighters notwithstanding!]
Directed with assurance and understanding by Michael Russell, this was a tight and compassionate portrayal of this 'slice-of-life' northern family.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 25.9.23
on - 25.9.23
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