THE STEAMIE. To 10 May.
Oldham
THE STEAMIE
by Tony Roper
Coliseum Theatre To 10 May 2003
Tue-Thu; Sat 7.30pm Fri 8pm Mat Sat 2.30pm
Runs 2hr 20min One interval
TICKETS: 0161 624 2829
www.coliseum.org.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 3 May, 2003
Lively revival of a comic highlight of modern Scottish theatre.Wildcat, Scotland’s popular touring theatre-with-songs company, may have gone, but Tony Roper’s wash-house comedy remains testimony to their existence. Subtlety wasn't their strong point – plenty of heart-on-sleeve stuff in this Hogmanay-eve 1953 slice-of-life, with Jane Nelson Peebles’ frail yet tough old washerwoman tugging the heartstrings through the wringer – yet goodwill and kindly laughter bubble constantly.
Aged Mrs Culfeathers trudges through Glasgow’s Carnegate Street clothes-cleaning institution with memories of great communal steamie experiences a generation before – mass washing resplendent across Glasgow Green – but young Doreen dreams of a future that's on the doorstep: an age of launderettes, where people silently watch their clothes spin round. Consumer durables like a television and refrigerator are mixed with grand notions of a new life in the luxury-land of new-build Drumchapel.
Her fantasy's played-out in one of Roper’s comic set-pieces, Linda Duncan McLaughlin’s resilient Magrit making an imaginary ‘phone-call, in which Lynne McCallum’s slower-witted Dolly becomes so involved it takes on reality for her. Ironically; comic as it is to watch Dolly’s huge-smiling enthusiasm as she imagines she’s really speaking to her supposedly-aggrandised friend miles away, the imagining’s no greater than Doreen’s own future-dreams.
Eric Potts is best known to Oldham audiences as a comic actor; his direction certainly knows how to position anyone for a solo turn. It also keeps the action moving. There may be an extraordinary amount of Hogmanay liquor about, against all the rules, but these women are here to work and as they beat their washing in pre-machine motion days, and tug at the huge donkey dryer-compartments, the production shows how communal effort produces community of spirit and a generous sense of others' feelings.
This is society on the point of becoming compartmentalised and mental landscapes being fenced-off and privatised. But it hasn't happened yet and as the redoubtable Scottish cast act and sing their way to closing time, the toughness and softness of these lives keeps the right side of sentimentality. The audible sighs of sympathy and recognition among more senior audience members point up the reality in Roper's story, when told in such an invigorating way.
Doreen: Victoria Balnaves
Dolly: Lynne McCallum
Magrit: Linda Duncan McLaughlin
Andy: Jack McGowan
Mrs Culfeathers: Jane Nelson Peebles
Director: Eric Potts
Designer: Dawn Allsopp
Lighting: Phil Davies
Sound: Anna Holly
2003-05-06 06:37:53