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Brassed Off
Derby Theatre
***** SOME
question the relevance of modern theatre to the world around it. Those
doubters should take a trip along to the Derby Theatre to watch
Brassed Off,
a play about a closing colliery, and its brass band. Derbyshire was a coal mining county as recently
as thirty years ago. A full house, and their response, on a Monday
night, paid testament to the connection that the audience felt to this
play. Key to the success of this production is a live
brass band, which was exactly what Director Sarah Brigham gave us in the
shape of the Derwent Brass band. The rich plangent tones of brass have a
unique quality, rousing, melancholic and nostalgic, and the evening
treated us to a mini concert within the play, each number earning
deserved extended applause from an appreciative audience. The film upon which the stage play is based is
amongst the finest observations of British social history in the past
half century, and I suspect that most of the audience will have seen it.
Pivotal to its success were Pete Postlethwaite as band conductor and
leader Danny, and Tara Fitzgerald as Gloria, new band member and
management interloper.
For this production Garry Cooper plays Danny, Seren Sandham-Davies plays Gloria. Cooper is superb as Danny. He bears a
physical resemblance to Postlethwaite and drives the band, and
production with his obsessive commitment to music and the legacy it
offers. Only at the end is he riven with doubt as he delivers an oration
on the social injustice of the mine closures which drew spontaneous
applause . Sandham-Davies has a tough job, not only does she
have to take a principal role, she also needs to play lead parts with a
Flugelhorn. I suspect that the criteria for this part thinned out the
audition process a little! Fortunately, not only is Seren an accomplished
musician, but she also plays Gloria with considerable aplomb, Feisty and
articulate, and sexy with it, she charms both the defecting band members
and audience. Gloria’s paradox is wanting to belong. She has
returned to her hometown, childhood sweetheart and industry which her
family worked in, at a time when all those things are disappearing as
she knew them. That paradox underpins the part, and is well portrayed by
a fine young actress. The huge advantage of the staged version over
celluloid is the emotional impact of a live brass ensemble blowing
through the music, such as Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez , with skill
and brio. Tara Fitzgerald merely had to mime the fiendishly difficult
flugelhorn solo in the film – Seren performs live. In supporting roles, Darren Bancroft (Jim) and
Howard Chadwick (Harry) delight and entertain as comedy double act
friends. Chadwick has the physique of a miner who probably didn’t need
mechanical tools, whilst Bancroft has the best line of the night as the
numbers who might vote for the redundancy package are assessed: "Nobody
ever says they voted Tory either, but somehow the buggers keep getting
in." Jo Mousely (Sandra) is wonderful as the mother of
four trying to keep the family together whilst the bailiffs
systematically strip the house. Child actor Joe Mothershaw plays the
part of Sandra’s eldest son and narrator with confidence and conviction. Paul Allen has done an excellent job adapting
Mark Herman’s screenplay for the stage, this is no pallid facsimile of
the original. Stage designer Ali Allen opts for a largely minimalist
kitchen sink set depicting homes and silhouettes of an industrial
landscape, but the harrowing suicide scene is graphically staged against
the pit head wheel. Director Sarah Brigham was a stickler for
accuracy in her previous Derby Theatre production Solace of the Road.
That authenticity, and attention to detail is an integral part of this
emotional and compelling production which deservedly evoked a standing
ovation at the close. Brassed Off runs until Saturday 10th
October. Gary Longden
21-09-15
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