Presented by AKA Theatre Company, 'The Flood' is a contemporary chamber musical based on the true-to-life experiences of the inhabitants of the Yorkshire town of Hebden Bridge on Boxing Day of 2015, when they witnessed the River Calder burst its banks and devastate a whole community.
The setting was a delight, something from a children's storybook adventure perhaps, as the rolling hills of the Pennines were shown as a patchwork of coloured clot, the river and grass delineated on the floor, and the pretty mill houses and stone properties that the area is so famous for were Christmas-card white lanterns lit from within and looked very pretty.
It was a cast of just five performers (Ayana Beatrice Poblete, Jon Bonner, Katherine Toy, Mark Emmons, Samantha Richards) tackling some 20 roles between them, and this was just a little too many one felt. Sometimes it was rather difficult to remember which character was which. This was not helped by the fast that these five were also the musicians of the musical too, therefore carrying guitars, trumpets, violins, keyboards, and goodness knows what else with them - these instruments being ostensibly 'invisible' - as they performed their roles. I am not truly a fan of actor/ musicians in any circumstance, and here it did obfuscate the narrative somewhat.
As for the storyline itself, then much more weight was given to the aftermath and rebuilding of the community than to the actual disaster itself. This made for a rather weak dramatic pulse. There was little or no sense of jeopardy, fear, or indeed anything other than the coming together of a community to proffer support and sympathy. There was no sense of urgency in this show at all, which again, weakened the dramatic impact, and indeed it took us right until the denouement before any true emotion transmuted itself from the stage into the audience.
The music (Joe Revell) was a strange mix of folk and rap. Most of the songs were instantly forgettable but catchy and easy-listening enough to engage, whilst at least two of the songs were performed with the cast bangi9ng on any prop within reach to provide percussion as one of them performed a rap, which just seemed quite ridiculous and out of kilter with the rest of the show - somehow, watching a middle aged man trying to be a gansta was truly incongruous.
The directing ( Lucy Raine assisted by Oonagh Johnson) was a very strange mix of styles and ideas sadly and so it became a show of very mixed messages. A bizarre mix of the naturalistic pitted against the non-naturalistic, realism versus the abstract. In this Yorkshire version of 'Come From Away' - despite its fragmented nature - the cast of five worked well and sincerely, but sadly failed to truly engage.
Reviewer - Alastair Zyggu
on - 7.5.25
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