UNION STREET. To 27 October.

Oldham.

UNION STREET
by Ian Kershaw.

Coliseum Theatre To 27 October 2007.
Mon-Thu, Sat 7.30pm Fri 8pm Mat 20, 24, 27 Oct 2.30pm.
Runs 2hr 35min One interval.
Audio-described 24 Oct.
BSL Signed 25 Oct.

TICKETS: 0161 624 2829.
www.coliseum.org.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 12 October.

Plenty of intriguing ideas but imperfectly united.
Union Street was once the acme of Oldham’s civic pride. But its great buildings are long-gone. Even a survivor like the humble Pennine public-house of Oldham-born Ian Kershaw’s new play hangs on, desperately trying to drum up trade.

Kershaw’s perspective ls shorter than the street’s history. Jo, working for Pennine landlord Jim, looks back to her 1980s youth and sees only decline. You don’t have to be far pastmuch over 30 these days before nostalgia sets in.

Jo has her own reason for looking back; her relationship with Asian musician Sam, who she’d meet in their urban oasis, a small park, or “recess”, interrupted only by park official Ste.

It’s only when the second act shows racism, built on resentment and a sense of defeat, lurking in Jo’s halcyon days, that the nature of Sam’s sudden desertion of her becomes apparent. It puts several characters in a new light, though the introduction of this story-element makes the comparatively laid-back first act seem a prologue to the second, creating a structural imbalance.

Kershaw’s late revelation is worth the wait, though it doesn’t undo a feel the play’s been paddling around some time. There’s little of the drive he gave his Watford-premiered Get Ken Barlow. Performances are amiable, though Gemma Wardle has to supply a lot of matey humour to give Jo the necessary energy, while Kyl Messios’s Sam is too neutral. Whatever the danger, Sam walked off without a word (didn’t he have Jo’s ‘phone number?), took her suggested title and made it a song hit, then comes back, equally neutral, twenty years later.

Paul Loughran gives ex-NCO landlord Jim humour and unpleasantness as required, but hardly ties the two together. Unlike Phil Rowson’s Ste, gentle or menacing according to whom he’s with, but always seeming to keep part of himself in reserve.

Kevin Shaw directs efficiently a play that could have done with more development. He fills the sometimes empty-seeming stage with occasional groups of young revellers, seemingly in permanent conga-mode. Until the end which, though blatant fantasy, is the feelgood culmination the play clearly had in its sights all along.

Jim: Paul Loughran.
Sam: Kyl Messios.
Ste: Phil Rowson.
Jo: Gemma Wardle.
Chorus: Martyn Blakeley, Lydia Brownlee, Emma Cook, Neil Dawson, Jo-Anne Donnelly, Natalie Fairbrother, Kirsty Green, Natalie Greenwood, Michael Hitchins, Ben McGladdery, Josh Payton-Fleming, Diane Wostenholme.

Director: Kevin Shaw.
Designer: Alison Heffernan.
Lighting: Thomas Weir.
Sound: Lorna Munden.
Musical Director: Howard Gray.

Sponsor: First Choice Homes Oldham.

2007-10-15 12:50:58