ERIC'S. To 11 October.
Liverpool.
ERIC’S
by Mark Davies Markham.
Everyman Theatre To 11 October 2008.
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Sat 2pm.
Runs 1hr 40min One interval.
TICKETS: 0151 709 4776.
www.everymn[playhouser.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 25 September.
Seventies style and sheen in a hymn to the City’s beat.
In his 1975 play City Sugar Stephen Poliakoff shows teacher-turned-broadcaster Leonard Brazil humiliating a teenager whose inarticulate blandness stands for the post-60s apathy Brazil so despises. He should have got out of the studio more, and heard the new sounds of Punk that were filling seventies’ studios and streets.
Liverpool teacher-turned-playwright Mark Davies Markham draws on his young days when The Beatles had been and gone, their famed starting-point the Cavern bulldozed into a car-park, as the new generation finds musical expression at Eric’s.
Eric’s was run by a man called Roger, its blokeish name contrasting the fragrant-female titles of other seventies clubs. It was a loss-making venture financially but re-started the city’s cultural capital, first by importing the big names in punk, then awaiting the inevitable reaction to the inspiration they provided and giving the stage to newly formed local bands.
A band called ‘The Crucial Three’ might not sound familiar, for it never got off the ground. But try The Teardrop Explodes, or Echo and the Bunnymen (Markham must have a persuasive way in getting his punk heroes’ agreement to being named and impersonated on stage).
He presents himself twice over, as enthusiastic teenager and, two decades on, making a crucial decision over kill-or-cure treatment for the leukemia that strikes midlife. It’s a fine autobiographical manoeuvre, reflected in Soutra Gilmour’s set for the play’s free-form action. There’s a surface-dimensional, Hull Truck like manner to the writing and Gilmour leaves the main Everyman space bare, backed by a rough-hewn stage where the band is just about visible, with suggestions at the sides that whatever Eric’s was famed for it wasn’t the elegance of its toilet facilities.
It’s from the stage that Joey/Joe steps to lie on the hospital bed Gilmour has descend for the brief latter-day scenes, which give a fragile edging to the main action of thrusting youthful and (mainly male) optimism. Director Jamie Lloyd provides shape and energy for what may not be the most complex piece in Liverpool’s Culture City year but is an energetic local anthem that duly received its standing ovation.
Joe: Graham Bickley.
Ian McCullough/Holly Johnson/Tax Office Worker/Scally/Disillusioned Man: Peter Caulfield.
Sally: Rosalie Craig.
Karen: Katy Dean.
Pete Wylie/Tax Office Worker/Grapes Regular/Scally/Disillusioned
Joey: Stephen Fletcher.
Julian Cope/Dougie/Grapes Regular/Scally/Disillusioned Man: Oliver Jackson.
Colin/A Ransom Punk: Ciaran Kellgren.
Dr Fisher/Roger Eagle/Grapes Regular: Dean Kelly.
Reg/Will Sergeant: Mark Morahan.
Eileen/Hilary The Punk Milkmaid: Lesley Nicol.
Boxhead/Grapes Regular/Scally/Tax Office Worker/Disillusioned Man: James Rigby.
Jayne Casey/Office Clerk/Tax Office Worker: Iris Roberts.
Director: Jamie Lloyd.
Designer: Soutra Gilmour.
Lighting: Jon Clark.
Sound: Chris Full.
Musical Supervisor/Arranger: Alan Williams.
Musical Director: Laura Bangay.
Choreographer: Ann Yee.
Fight dikrector: Kate Waters.
Dance & Fight captain: Peter Caulfield.
2008-10-06 00:31:00