Detention

“Detention” presented by TIPPS, written by Natalie Anning

I had no idea what to expect. Normally TIPPS present a pantomime or a variety show at this time of year so when I arrived and was presented with a programme for a show entitled “Detention” I was nonplussed. Natalie Anning, who had written the show, set the opening scene in school where a group of children who were in detention had an unexpected history lesson from “Boring Bolton”, a not so popular teacher.  Thus the youth section of TIPPS were integrated into a fascinating story during which they began to realise that history is not so boring after all. Deftly we were drawn through the privations of the Victorian era, old time music hall through to the tragedy of the Titanic and the demands of the suffragettes until we were in the horrors of the First World War. Here the pace changed as we listened to the emotive poetry of Wilfred Owen, Eleanor Farjeon, Jessie Pope, Helen Hamilton and Anna Gordon Keown followed by the company singing “Keep the Home Fires Burning”. This led into the finale of Act 1 when the close harmony all male singing group “The Eight of Hearts” augmented by the adult cast sang “Only Remembered” whilst we witnessed a silhouette story of life in the trenches. As the song and the story ended and the names of the Tipton men who fell scrolled up on the screen (how young they were) and the poppies fell there could not have been a member of the audience who did not have a tear in the eye and a lump in the throat. This was pure theatrical magic.

Act 2 took us through the Roaring Twenties and included an hilarious silent film in true Mack Sennett style featuring members of the cast. The film even had a scratch line on it. Clever that, considering it was recorded with a digital camera. We were led into the depression years of the 1930’s and the optimism of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” until, at the outbreak of World War 2 the city children were evacuated to the country including, of course, Tipton St John. The music of the 1940’s has a flavour of its own. I love it. It was the music I grew up with. Finally the company gave us their own anthem, “Tipton, Tipton”.

There were no stars in this show. It was a company effort where every member had an important and necessary part to play. The result was a cohesive and magnificent piece of theatre supported by a first class creative team. If I walk out of a theatre humming a tune I feel that the company have succeeded. I had so many tunes going round my head that I found it difficult to go to sleep that night. Well done TIPPS! How on earth are you going to follow that?

Brian Rees

24/02/2020

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