Writer: Liz Richardson
Growing up in West Cumbria in the shadow of Sellafield nuclear power station, teenage Liz couldn’t wait to get out. Now, with a daughter of her own, she’s looking back at what made her, the place, the people, the quirks of small-town life, and where she really belongs.
You don’t need an extraordinary life to build a show like Local. Much of the charm comes from the familiar, and Liz Richardson’s autobiographical, one-woman show is a gentle celebration of familiar people living ordinary lives. She tells us about her retired parents, bumbling about in the family home, one day much the same as the next. She talks about friends who’ve left, friends who’ve stayed, her old school headmaster. Landing back in her childhood bedroom she revels in the familiarity of the view from her window, the memories scrawled in teenage diaries, the ironed bedsheets.
Richardson is at her best though when things start to go awry. The show would be so much more impactful with less of the funny reminiscence and more of the dramatic emotion that she does so well. As such this change of pace comes at a point when it’s all getting a bit repetitive and cosy. As home truths start to emerge and she talks of her fear of loss and her personal demons, Local becomes far more compelling and interesting.
While Local is somewhat formulaic in its structure, and a good fifteen minutes too long to really hold the audience’s attention, Richardson is a compelling enough performer, delivering both gentle humour and heightened emotion with a confident ease. No Director is credited so, assuming she’s self-Directed the show, Richardson’s physicality and timing are particularly good and she uses the stage well.
The set tries a bit too hard. Less clutter and props would allow for more focus on the storytelling, but towards the end of the show when emotions start to soar, the disorder makes more sense. Projections add some nice additional elements and locations, but at times get a bit lost in the chaos of the set design.
This is a deeply personal story, although one that will resonate with most people, at least in some part. It’s about mothers and daughters, parents and children, wasted years. It’s about fear and letting go of it. Richardson doesn’t hold back in sharing her thoughts and feelings and Local may well, for some, touch on difficult issues with things that are difficult to hear. It will certainly raise more questions than it answers, and that alone makes it a worthwhile piece of theatre.
Reviewed on 6 June 2025
