Review: Brassed Off @ Lichfield Garrick

It’s grim up North, we all know that. It’s why we live in lovely Lichfield.

But dahn sahth they think we’re in the North anyway so perhaps this is the time to fess up (as BBC pundits now say) and admit that the trials of the seventies mine deep wells of feeling within those of us who lived through them, a time when the whole country was truly divided along class lines for one of the most troubled periods in our recent history.

The Tory years of the eighties and nineties have their apologists. Brassed Off chronicles the period of the miner’s strike, already theatrically familiar even to those too young to know it from films like Billy Elliot and The Full Monty. In this Grimm world all families are reduced to Hansel and Gretel level where there’s only stale bread used to leave a trail through the financial forest and where Mrs. Thatcher’s Big Bad Wolf always holds sway. Politically simplistic it may be but it has and still can make for great drama.

So the Grimsdyke Colliery Band’s demise, mirroring the closure of its coal pit forms this heartwarming drama of how real people are more important than ideologies, and hearts are greater than things. I must say the timing of this production is particularly provoking considering a General Election is only a month away.

Local boy and now international star Director Chris Rolls does a superb job marshalling his enormous cast including a full brass band (the wonderful local Amington Band – long may they play), our own Lichfield Players and a handpicked cast of professionals. The hidden strength of Mr. Rolls’ direction meant it was almost impossible to determine any actor’s professional or amateur status.

Our own dear Stephen Brunton has the star role here as the idealistic lung-damaged conductor whose unshakeable belief in quality takes his loyal miner musicians to the top. It’s truly the role of a lifetime, and he almost outshines it.

We’d be here all night if I mentioned everybody but from an outstandingly committed cast I really do have to commend 13 year old newcomer William Stevenson as the child Shane, inheritor of all this chaos, who is the reason any of us goes on fighting. This naturally gifted actor could go far.

A truly memorable evening all round.

Phil Preece

Miners' strike pitted against rousing music

Review by Tony Wood for The Lichfield Mercury 6th May 2010

The Garrick Stage is empty, bare and stark.

It is ten years after the miners' strike, life for the families in the mining village of Grimley is bleak and the colliery is likely to close. There is nought to look forward to - life is truly 'in the pits'. The colliery band arrives , things change and the whole scene is enlivened. But is it just a diversion from day to day living? It is a spectacular opening for Brassed Off, a Lichfield Players production.

We meet Shane, a young son of Phil whose family has spent 'all life down pit' and he takes us throught the events. William Stevenson, a bright young actor, seemed as if he was born in a put village. Against the aftermath of the 1984 miners' strike, the unspoken plan to close the collieries, the hardship it brought to families, the tension of the ballot to close the pit and take the pay-off, comes the Grimley Colliery Band.

Cameos of life, powerful dialogue and personal conflict follow as the audience lives with the characters. Danny, played by Steve Brunton, who was absorbed in the part is the passionate conductor. His son Phil, with his family in despair, is brought to the verge of suicide. Charlie Buckland showed the exasperation of the situation. Meanwhile, best mates Harry (Ian Parkes) and Jim (Barrie Aitchison) bring some light relief with their wives Vera (Jan Goodwin) and Rita (Sue C Carter).

There is also the romance between Andy and Gloria. Matthew Stathers and Rachel Matthews share the complications of a miner about to lose his job with a gorlfriend employed by the board.

Central to all this is a brilliant musical experience. Tamworth's Amington Band rightly received rousing acclaim.

There is so much in this flagship production - the detail of the lighting, how the stage is transformed. It's a serious reflection on the political strategy of the past years and how it affected lives which seems poignant at the time of a general election.

This was a stupendous evening which brought audience members to their feet. No-one was 'Brassed Off' with this visit to the theatre!