| UNION |
| BRASS (book,music,lyrics) by BENJAMIN TILL |
| **** |
| director/movement SASHA REGAN set TOBY BURBIDGE lights MATTHEW SWITHINBANK costumes PENN O’HARA producer UNION CREATIVES
piano & m. d. HENRY BRENNAN with EMMA HARROLD eliza, SAM KIPLING her brother alf, LAWRENCE SMITH morrie aged 15, MAISON KELLY wilfred, LUCY ASHTON tats, JOE DOUGLASS george,TAMSIN DOWSETT grimsby, HANNAH FRANCES-BAKER rosaline/trumpet, ADAM GEORGE-SMITH tom, ALAISTER HOYLE gideon/trumpet, ROSA LENNOX peggy, KELSE-RAE MARSHALL emmie, MICHAEL MARTIN major, MATTHEW PETER-CARTER bikerdyke/trumpet, JACK REITMAN harry, SAMANTHA RICHARDS titty, LAWRENCE SMITH morrie/trumpet |
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| This deeply effective production has been reviewed as a musical ….it is not…what makes it so original is its category as an English folk opera which reminds us of our English identity which is being lost in all this process of globalisation. There is no doubt how deeply effective this production has been on audiences. The characters are real, the feelings are real, and the power of the poetry burns into the gut.
The Union Theatre, to commemorate the centenary of Armistice Day this November, a trauma that will never be forgotten over a senseless war killing off a whole generation of men, produced this professional premiere of Benjamin Till’s Award Winning work, Brass, commissioned by The National Youth Music Theatre. Based on real stories of real people within historically unfogotten years, we follow a Leeds (Barnbow) amateur brass band who enlist together to fight in World War I while leaving behind the lasses to work in the munitions factory. Thus keeping the home fires burning while awaiting the return of their lads. This soulful tale of love, loss, and the futilities of a feckless war, is set both in Leeds and on the frontline.
‘Yours is the generation that was born to suffer for the greater good,’ preaches a callous major (top brass), in Brass, to the infantry unit he’s sending to death at the Somme. This, of course, was the reality as the ‘lions led by donkeys’ fought and died in that futile battle. How relevant to produce on the hundredth anniversary of the signing of the Armistice, this first professional production that also goes far beyond the war. There is something so warming to see and hear an original folk opera, a format forgotten since the dominance of the musical which is such a theatrical devise. Till’s melodious score, has such varied roots from ‘Marie Lloyd to Vaughan Williams, painting vivid pictures of the horrors of war in the trenches and the heartbreak at home. Songs like Eliza’s Letter, Barnbow Lassies, Forming A Band, Shone Within the Sun, Brass, Could Have Been, I Miss the Music are samples of the type of songs so beautifully captured within the story. The opening songs, like Barnbow Lassies and When You’re A Pal are innocent, and full of optimism. There have been endless plays, books, films, poetry, paintings on this subject from so many angles. What causes such impact here is the specifics of an amateur brass band signing up as a group to their own death. The Irish regiment facing their death as a group at the Somme was also tragic, a story retold many times. It is always the specific detail of specific people that reach the heart. The picture of the napalm bombed baby in Viet Nam on the front page of the newspapers caused greater world protest and soldiers going awall than any political incident. We see here the men as a brass band, we then see them in the trenches. We see the camaraderie of the men, the carnage that never shatters their feeling of love for one another, or for their women, or sister, or of offering hope to a spinster by starting a tentative relationship via letters.
This giant- emotional work strikes out at the devastation suffered by communities, townships, cities, friends and family. Till based it on the real tragedy of the Leeds Pals, who, against their will and sound judgement, were not only ordered out of the trenches and into the blazing sun, at the Somme, but then ordered to walk towards enemy gunfire. Most of them were killed within the first 20 minutes. Till not only beautifully tells of the Barnbow Brass Band that went to war but also about the Barnbow women they left at home. As Till writes it…the band had been working on their annual championships when one of them pops up with his news of of signing up. “There’s a war on. Men out there in France need our help,” So all those amateur musicians sign up –including 15-year-old Morrie who lies about his age in order to enlist and is later executed for cowardice. While the men march off to war, filled with Yorkshire bravado, their sisters, wives, and families, galvanised by suffragette Eliza, go to work in the local munitions factory and even decide to give their men a surprising welcome, when they return, by learning to play their brass instruments. He writes with such intimacy about both sides of the war for the men and the women…. the horror…which Till covers with his embracing musical score.
Sasha Regan stages with sensitivity and passion the fullness of the story through its music and text (lyrics) capturing the range of moods, from laughter to tears, from love to horror, from home to the front Her sense of timing has a musicality that catches the nuance of the libretto. Toby Burbidge’s versatile set is crafted with timber in the roofing, in boxes as stools, in tables that move to define the separate spaces between the front and at home, morphing between a canteen scene in a munitions factory to the front in France. Here I must add the tables constantly setting up the locations becomes a bit overdone more because of the need to edit this book or libretto…a paring down. Basically it is a 3-act folk opera…. Act I ending with the bravado of the men enlisting, Act II the death of 15-year-old Morrie, Act III the brave wives blowing those horns…that brass for the memory of those men. Matthew Swithinbank’s lighting design is stunning as it heightens the intensity of the battle scenes and shadows the home front in its sadness or warms its emotions in sunlight. Lee Greenaway’s choreography captures the wholesomeness of the characters without it being a deliberate dance number. She creates naturalistic movement with dances ranging from zestful fun of the women to a soldier’s brush with lice or the actual tragedy in the trenches and battles. The poignant scenes are so delicately lit, enhancing those moving moments. The casting of such young actors adds so distinctly to the pathos. It is a fantastic cast …all 16 of them listed in the credits. …they are a collection of richly toned singers and dance with such flexible ability. Their melodious voices whether it be solo or choral sing out in those lyrical ballads. But Sam Kipling must be highlighted as Eliza’s brother, he portrays the most charismatic character singing and dancing with amazing skill. Musical director Henry Brennan brings out the power and beauty of Till’s music that underscores this folk opera’s depths of emotion, haunting with musicality from its opening to its end laced in the intricacies of its harmony. His classical playing of the piano throughout and especially in the battle scenes are a wonderment. He also prepared all that singing for the cast, who maintained an ensemble’s exuberance. The production has closed but what a great touring show this is as the whole country remembers the great sorrow of World War I. Import no longer possible so tour, tour, tour.
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| October 31 – November 24/18 |
| 2753 |