Pocklington Arts Centre – 13 June 2018
5*****
Reviewed by Marcus Richardson
On Behalf Of The People came to the Pocklington Arts Centre on the 13th June. Touring for 2 months with The Melting Shop company, the play explores the mining community post world war 2 and the impacts of the unions. The play explores many topics in such a beautiful way creating believable scenes and characters. The cast of four are treating the venue as a studio even though it was an end on venue I loved this aspect of the show I felt involved and with a smaller audience and cast my role as an audience member was more interactive and heightened.
The cast Composed of Ray Ashcroft, Danny Mellor, Kate Wood and Lizzie Frain; the characters are all involved in the mining community, but we focus on the Mason family, George is the patriarch of the family, played by Ashcroft, the character is a proud union man stubborn as a nail, Ashcroft found the essence of the character I felt connected to the character, we could see his hidden emotions and he didn’t have to explicitly display what he was feeling because we were connected to the character. Tom is the son of George, played by Mellor, the character has a lot of development throughout the play, he is the main reason for most of the progression, we learn how his relationship with his father works and the effects of war, his characterisation and the way he interacted with other cast members really created believable bonds on stage. Connie is Tom’s mother and George’s wife, played by Wood, for me her strengths we the emotional reactions to characters and scenes. Last but not least is Liz toms love interest, played by Frain, what she gave to the performance was an energy that the character could feed of such as her interaction between her as mason during a scene where things get heated. The whole cast were phenomenal, the way that they worked with each other and the audience really create a moving and thought-provoking piece of theatre
The staging was clever and due to a minimal but effective set scene changes were quick and seamless, the cast took on the role of scenes changes so on stage we only ever saw four people, I loved the simplicity of this and it made me focus on what the characters were saying and how the actors presented the text. One of my favourite features about the show was the audience being in the round it really brought the audience and cast together as if we were one body, a union ethic.
I loved the play and the actors, for me these shows resonate with me more than larger scale shows. The messages from this play didn’t need to be explicit, they were approached in a way that we understood, I would recommend this show to everyone, I can guarantee that everyone will take away a positive experience and find something in the play that they can relate with.