Brassed Off – Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough

Writer: Paul Allen, after Mark Herman

Director: Liz Stephenson

Liz Stephenson’s production, in association with Theatre by the Lake and Octagon Theatre, is a fine tribute to the brass band culture and mining communities of Yorkshire. First of all it never fails to astonish to hear the wonderfully accomplished musical skills of actors these days; here the brass band is made up of the actors playing Phil, Jim, Harry, Andy and, of course, Gloria, plus a few co-opted musicians who are required to do a bit of acting on the side. The result, as the band roars into Rossini or Fucik, is tremendous.

The characters fall into familiar types (the devoted, but terminally ill, conductor, the attractive young woman who has the answer to all their problems – at least the temporary ones-, the perpetually late scamp and so on), but the issues are presented clearly and without sentimentality: do you take £23,000 to close the pit and does this closure mean the death of the colliery band? The tragedy of the most finely drawn character, Phil, desperately in debt, unable to resolve the problem of being the conductor’s son and the father of a growing family, reduced to the final humiliation of being a clown at children’s parties, is slightly muted in this stage version, but Joey Hickman brings out the despair of poverty with no sign of relief (except that £23,000).

Generally Paul Allen sticks close to Mark Herman’s screenplay, set 10 years after the pivotal strike of 1984/85, but the use of Shane, the oldest of Phil’s kids, as an adult narrator who then slips back into childhood, is a mixed blessing: Andrew Turner adopts the actions and facial expressions of a young boy admirably, but it’s difficult to see what is gained by his role as narrator. Incidentally, Liz Stevenson gets gloriously uninhibited performances from his two younger siblings, especially in a riotous day out in Saddleworth.

Hannah Woodward is a spirited, if somewhat strident, Gloria – and a fine flugelhorn player, and Barney Taylor’s Andy matures from the somewhat feckless youth at the beginning to a young man wrestling with the problem of being in love with someone in the bosses’ camp, though not on their side. Russell Richardson attacks the part of Danny, the conductor, with old-fashioned resolution and gets the key speech about the destruction of communities. Among an ensemble cast full of vivid portrayals, the ill-assorted double act of Joanna Holden and Maxine Finch as Vera and Rita stands out.

One question remains after an uplifting evening, as dramatic as it is funny: why choose such deafening sounds, hardly music, before the start? It certainly reduced the anticipatory chatter!

Runs until 31st August 2024