Labour of Love

Labour of Love, by James Graham, brings to the stage the historic triumphs and failures of the Labour party, whilst also sharing the developing relationship between an MP, David Lyons, and his constituency agent, Jean Whittaker, as they battle over the decades in a safe Nottinghamshire parliamentary seat.

The play reflects on the ongoing conflict between the reformers and the radicals which tracked their way through the history of the party.  In the first act of the play we move backwards in time from an edge of the seat recount at the 2017 General Election through to the beginning of the story where we see Lyons being parachuted into the ‘safe’ seat in 1990 by the Constituency Labour Party (CLP).  Then with excellent symmetry, the second act provides more action set in the same scenes as the first to move us forward from 1990 to 2017.

The scenes were interspersed with video and sound footage from the relevant eras.  This audio visual covered many of the political, UK and world events of the period with a backdrop of cleverly selected popular music.   This had been prepared by Alistair Cheetham and was excellent in terms of being a commentary of the times and reminding the audience of ‘the state of the nation’ at the time the events on stage were happening.  It was also a very clever device to allow the set to be changed.  It’s rare the props team get a shout out in reviews, but I do need to mention the wonderful work of Vivs Long-Ferguson, Lynne Whitaker, Christine Smith and Steve Marsden who deftly changed the office through the five different timeframes and back again.  Congratulations to the   Narnia Business team for the set build and to whoever sourced suitable landline, answer phones, blackberry’s, mobile phones (of every era) along with the stage dressing which was perfect for the time of the action.  The screen changing the photos of the different Labour Party leaders was also well managed.

The cast were all excellent with wonderful performances by Alison Westwood as Elizabeth Lyons, Rebecca Ford as Margot Midler, Sarah Liptrott as Olga Smirnova and Ross Taylor as Len Prior – each actor perfectly capturing their character.  The caustic barbs of the MPs wife were delivered with reserved aggression by Westwood.  The rise of Midler to deputy leader of the Council saw a lovely character arc from Ford who had a wonderful sense of bewilderment about her.  Great characterisation by Liptrott as the Russian Oligarch being courted by Lyons and the Labour Party to invest in the town and an impassioned performance by Taylor as left-wing Labour member – never once letting his mask slip. 

The lead roles were taken by Melanie Murray (Jean Whittaker) and Alistair Cheetham (David Lyons) who both gave brilliant portrayals of the MP and his constituency manager whose shared love of socialist principals and genuine care for the community brings them together and pulls them apart time and time again.    This leaves the audience desperate for one or the other to make the first move with Murray and Cheetham perfectly executing the near misses.  In an almost Shakespearean ‘Comedy of Errors’ twist their paths stay firmly rooted next to each other, but without every crossing.  Murray had an amazing grasp of the narrative and her delivery was spot on in terms of timing and sidewards glances – wonderful, funny, engaging and real.  Cheetham, as Director had not anticipated taking the role of David Lyons, but circumstances meant that he picked up the part only a week ago and whilst he performed with script in hand this talented actor managed the challenges perfectly.  He acted his way through every line, never losing pace or place in the script.  The relationship between Lyons and Whittaker was wonderfully touching and clearly showed a huge amount of work between these two performers – simply brilliant.

Sound, light, props, costumes and staging were excellent and very well managed - a great evening’s entertainment.  Huge congratulations to everyone involved.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.