Oldham Theatre Workshop is one of the north west's most recognised and established training centres for children and young people, and each year they have, for quite some time, produced an original musical production which has been performed at the bijou Performance Space inside the Library in Oldham centre. And once again, we are here, with a full length original musical, written especially for this 32-strong cast. Written by Sarah Nelson with music composed by James Atherton, this particular musical, 'Chasing The Wind' tells the story of a 15 year-old boy who has spent much of his childhood in hospital with a heart condition find that he suddenly collapses and dies. He has however requested that his heart be donated to save another person's life, which is exactly what happens here, and thanks to his heart, he has given a young teenage girl the chance of a long and bright and healthy future.
The musical explores both of their lives from being young children to teenagers, and hers as a twentysomething. We see the impact this has on not only these two but also those close to them; their family, their friends, and in particular the young boy's would-be girlfriend. This is done using a rather confusing, fragmenting and obfuscating series of flashbacks, and using three female protagonists at various ages, and two male for him as a young boy and at 15. It truly takes a long while for this to become apparent and we start to understand how this story fits together, since this is a linear storyline told in a very non-linear way. It would have helped I think had the same characters at various ages been lookalikes and wore the same clothing, but not having their character names in the programme, and not having a synopsis in the programme did not help either sadly.
The stage at Oldham Library truly is tiny, and in this instance the company had decided to make it even smaller by having a live 7-piece band take up roughly half of the available space. The band however, under the baton of Michael Edwards were extremely good and their sound quality and understanding of the score was superb. They certainly helped bring the music to life in a way that pre-recorded backing tracks never can. This meant however, that the cast had only a small space in which to work, and when segueing from "present day" to "flashback" as they did with alarming regularity, then only half of that available space could be used. Wooden rostra had been erected to make it loom like a harbour jetty, with an upturned rowing boat which was also used as a platform. The musical was set on the Cornish coast. This did mean that sightlines, especially for those seated at the rear of the auditorium like myself, were much less of an issue than they are normally at this venue, and some interesting 'pictures' using different levels were used to good effect.
Sadly though the sound levels were not optimal this evening. As one might imagine having a live band playing in such a small and confined space, they were, even when playing quietly, still too loud for much of the underscored dialogue, and even for some of the lyrics in the songs. I got fed up of straining to try an understand the cast over the noise (albeit lyrical and tuneful noise) of the instrumentalists. Most of the cast were youngsters, aged I would imagine between 6 and 18, with a couple of adults thrown in for good measure, but even with the mics they were using, it was not sufficient sadly for a lot of the time. The lighting capabilities of this space are also quite limited, but this did not seem to deter since the design worked well and was always on cue.
Directed by James Atherton there was little change to the pace and dynamics in this production. In fact, the entire second act did not progress or change the narrative in any way, and was more or less unnecessary.. This piece would make a superb one-act chamber opera, but in its present form it is overlong and over-indulgent. The acting and directing was self-indulgent and very 'worthy'. Undoubtedly the writing and the storyline as well as the obvious passion and commitment from the young cast all conspired in making it so, but there was little to lighten the mood, and little to change the downward dynamic spiral. Without having a cast list with character names I do not know who was who, but suffice to say that all involved truly gave their alls to this project. It was obviously something very close to their hearts, and the sincerity and love they gave to this show was inspiring. The chorus / ensemble singing (an harmonies) were truly lovely but the choreography was squashed sadly, and looked cramped, especially in the play-within-a-play at the hospital. It is a musical with heart (excuse the obvious pun.. couldn't resist it!)
An inspiring piece of original musical theatre performed with passion by a group of talented youths and young people.
Reviewer - Alastair Zyggu
on - 25.7.25
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