Review: Brassed Off, Octagon Theatre Bolton
It’s grim for the folk of Grimley. The local pit, the lifeblood of the Yorkshire town is threatened with closure 10 years after the miners’ strike divided families and signalled the beginning of the end of a once great industry.
The one shining light is the local colliery band but will that too disappear?
Brassed Off is an engaging, unapologetically nostalgic and warm look at a community simply trying to survive against the odds.
It’s a great evening out made all the more special by the live music performed by a highly talented cast supplemented by members of the Wingates and Eagley Brass Bands.
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There is something very evocative about hearing brass instruments; there’s power and real emotion in the music which wraps itself around the audience.
Russell Richardson is Danny, the conductor for whom the band is everything and who dreams of glory in the national championships at the Royal Albert Hall.
His son Phil, played by Joey Hickman, jailed for his part in the strikes a decade ago, is broke. With three kids and a dodgy trombone he’s also disillusioned.
When pit bosses offer miners money to vote for closure in the forthcoming ballot for the band it becomes question of loyalty against pragmatism.
Full of grit and Northern humour, you really engage with the characters - the strong women like Rita and Vera (played by Maxine Finch and Joanna Holden); the old hands Harry and Jim (Matt Ian Kelly and Greg Patmore) who end every shift with a ‘wet’ at the club; the idealistic Gloria (Hannah Woodward).
Staged totally in the round and told through the eyes of a man-child narrator Shane, Brassed Off is a celebration of community spirit underpinned by the rich sounds of live brass.
The superb ensemble cast bring genuine emotion and authenticity to the production and the playing is absolutely first rate.
Until Saturday, September 28. Details from www.octagonbolton.co.uk.
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