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Matt Bond as John and Lee Fisher as Isaac with the ensemble. Pictures: Pamela Raith Photography The Hired Man
Lichfield Garrick
**** THEATRE can be a powerful weapon. At its
best it can bring laughter to the most humourless of souls, or bring
tears to the stoniest of hearts, or, as here, it can be full of
surprises. Who in their right mind would take an amateur
cast of more than 50, many of whom have never been on stage before and
then put them in a musical unfamiliar to all but musical anoraks and
with not one song people are likely to recognise. Who indeed, so step forward Lichfield Garrick
Artistic Director Tim Ford who wanted a piece for his vision of a
Lichfield Garrick Community Musical, a chance for ordinary people to
appear in a sort of people’s production in a professional theatre. And he pulled it off with a show that was full of
enthusiasm and showed no little talent. The musical is based on the
first novel in Melvyn Bragg’s Cumbrian Trilogy with music and lyrics by
Howard Goodall and provides a love story laced with social history
chronicling the lives of recently
We open with the annual hiring fair when men and
women desperate for work negotiate wages with prospective employers. Matt Bond as John has a powerful baritone voice
which shows a gentle side when needed while Megan Daniels as a lovely
voice as his wife Emily while Hattie Rumsey, another fine voice, and
Adam Pritchard as their children May and Harry offer excellent support. Lee Fisher as Jack the Lad Isaac and Joel
Kirkpatrick as serious Seth the miner, are also convincing as John's
brothers. Then we have the Pennington farming family, with
Richard Comfort as the father, who hires John, and his son Jackson,
played with a confident air by Alan Rowe.
It is a love triangle between John, Emily and
Jackson which leads to the first crisis in the village but that pales
against the war with every family in the area losing someone, including
the Penningtons and the Tallentire. It was going tobe over by Christmas
. . . and it was; it’s just no one asked in which year. And, the war over, life is still hard with
tragedy never far away with pit disasters and battles for union
recognition. Goodall’s music is more opera or oratorio than
musical, there are no standards, no songs that are going to be covered
by stars, but they are interesting songs augmenting a fine narrative and
the full cast choral numbers are quite superb, for which we can thank
Musical Director Angharad Sanders who led an onstage eight-piece band. A mention too for choreographer Felicity Kerwin,
and director Tim Ford of course, for the ensemble work. With more than
40 people on stage at times it is not easy to make them look like a
crowd rather than a mob yet they did it, with everyone animated whenever
they were on stage and seemingly well drilled as to where they should be
and what they should be doing. Well planned by the creative team and well
executed by the cast. Designer John Brooking, a regular at the Garrick,
always manages interesting sets and this one, on several levels to give
us sitting rooms, coal faces, trenches, pubs, town squares and farms, is
no exception, all well lit by Johnathan Martlew. It is a big cast, a big ask and a big success. To
06-08-16 Roger Clarke 02-08-16
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married
John and Emily Tallentire from the end of the 1890s to the 1920s, taking
us through World War I.