A Rite Kwik Metal Ta Ta

David Halliwell, born in Brighouse but dying in exile in Oxfordshire at the age of 69, wrote several TV dramas and a large number of scripts for the stage.

Since his death in 2006 his acclaimed works have been largely forgotten, until a tranche of manuscripts were found in the archives of the University of Leeds library.

It was the treasurer of Grassington Players, Robert Fort, delving into history, who uncovered the original script for a "darkly comic masterpiece" which the group is now bringing to life.

The play, A Rite Kwik Metal Ta-Ta, was written in 1978 and set against a background of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, transposing a little bit of this to Yorkshire. There's the fictional Yorkish Nationalist Party and the Yorkland Liberation Army, campaigning for independence. Many of the themes and ideas, said Mr Fort, are relevant and resonate today.

He had first seen the play at the Crucible in Sheffield in 1979 and it stuck with him for all these years. When the players discussed a new play, he set out to find the script. But it was a journey of discovery that was to take him firstly back to the Crucible, then to Halliwell's agent, and finally to the University of Leeds where his works were held in the archives.

Eventually, as three boxes of uncatalogued material were recovered, Mr Fort was able to copy out the script - line by line - over the course of three full days. Halliwell's sister Elizabeth Antcliffe also donated his archives including letters from contemporaries and celebrities like John Osborne, Harold Pinter, John Cleese and Brian Cox.

This rich vein of personal memorabilia, stumbled upon almost by accident, reveals a picture of the man that Halliwell might once have been, and how he was held in regard as "one of the great writers who never happened".

This challenging play starts with an introduction by Gwenda Holt played by Penny Hart Woods giving the audience an insight into what they were about to see and background to the story about a bomb that had gone off in a laundrette, with the Yorkland Liberation Army to blame which had killed several innocent people. We then move to Young Gwenda Holt played by Ruby Benson interviewing the MP Oswin Reddington the outspoken MP, played by Mark Bamforth who also directed the play, against the Yorkshire Nationalist Party and all it stands for.

Two of the YLA Albert James played by Ben Hopkins and Michael Witton played Rich Sutcliffe decide to kidnap Oswin Reddington and the story starts to unfold. Without giving too much away the play unfolds with twists and turns in every direction revealing everything there is about being “Yorkist” including my favourite the story of that true icon Harry Ramsden’s. All three characters had lengthy dialogue and monologues to deliver and did so ensuring the play kept both its pace and dynamics well done.

The final character to emerge was Dominica Popham played by Skye Wilkinson. The play had an unexpected dark and sinister end and if you wish to know more go see it.

Good luck to Grassington Players and well done in choosing and delivering such a challenging choice.

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