Breezeblock Park

Breezeblock Park,” written by Willy Russell in the 1970s was his first play and is said to be one of his best comedies, he also gave us other iconic pieces such as Educating Rita, Shirley Valentine, and Blood Brothers. The play was originally produced at the Everyman Theatre Liverpool in 1975 and the script not only includes lots of comedy, but it also has a message with very poignant themes as it asks questions, and explores thought-provoking issues, by looking at the culture of 1970’s Britain through the life of one family living on a council estate in Liverpool as they celebrate  over the Christmas period. We witness sibling rivalries and prejudices within the family and look at the difficulties of family life through their relationships, arguments, idiosyncrasies, and the keeping up with the Jones’s syndrome, when two sisters try to outdo each other by having a contest to see who paid more for their new three-piece suite and who can afford to have central heating installed. The men in the family would be considered sexist, discriminative, and misogynistic by today’s standards as they spend their time drinking and bragging to each other, and everyone should know their place and be content with their lot. However, family tensions arise when activist Sandra, Betty’s daughter is no longer content with her working-class family life and is desperate to break free and escape to a different more meaningful world with her posh student boyfriend, after discovering, red wine, books, and political idealism. Sandra shocks the family by announcing she is pregnant, and their world is turned upside down, then things get even worse when she informs them that she is leaving home to live with Tim and not getting married which causes turmoil within the family who try desperately to adhere to their moral rules and wrestle with the social conventions of their class and age demographic expected in 1970’s northern England. They are shocked when Sandra stands up to them and decides she will not be part of the plans they are making for her life. However, amongst all this confusion and mayhem her dysfunctional family still try to keep the Christmas spirit alive.

Director Hilda McAughey with Assistant Director Joanne Jenkinson managed to produce an enjoyable evening's entertainment. All the cast worked well together and expertly developed hugely different characters with different outlooks and personalities, meaning they were easily identifiable to the audience. The family consisted of Betty, Sandra’s mother played by the talented Debbie Wells who was desperate to outdo her sister Reeny. Debbie produced an excellent character, on the outside she was tough no nonsense, but she could also be sympathetic and soft inside.She was very proud of her new three-piece suite, the price of which rose depending on who she was talking to, and her facial expressions and antics with the vibrator that she thought was a posh drinks mixer which brother Tommy bought her as a Christmas present was very funny. Fin Robertson as Syd, Sandra’s father, made a good long-suffering husband to Betty, he was funny when drunk, Syd was supposed to have lots of medical problems, which were dreamt up by Betty, as she had once been a nursing auxiliary and knew better than the Doctor, and Syd was more than happy to play along with this as it meant he could get out of doing things he didn’t want to do, Debbie and Fin also made a very believable couple. Karen Henty produced a good characterisation and performance as lovable Aunty Vera, her character was quirky, however, she had hidden depths and was more in tune with the family dynamics than we first thought as she appeared to have everybody weighed up. Al Roe was quite mischievous as Betty and Reeny’s brother, Uncle Tommy, he came across as a bit of a jack the lad, and liked a drink, he also liked to stir things up. I was quite taken with his curly wig which was very 70’s. Aunty Reeny played by Lorraine Ryan thought she was a cut above the rest of the family, as they lived at the posher end of the estate. Lorraine gave us a lovely snobby interpretation of Reeny’s character quite different to Betty, but they were still believable as sisters as it was obvious that they cared for each other underneath all the oneupmanship. Chris Hill securely played Ted, Reeny’s husband, he produced a good comedic overbearing character who could be a bit annoying as he was constantly trying to prove that he was always right and he was cleverer than the rest of the family. Then we had Becca Roe producing a very nice confident performance as the meek and suppressed, Joanne, Reeny and Ted’s daughter, in her first role with MADS, her character was subdued most of the time but came to life when she tried to stick up for Sandra. There is an underlying question about this role as it is not clear wether the character has genuine psychological problems or there is some form of unintentional abuse, however this could be the authors intention as there is underlying thought-provoking themes in the script. Laura Tingle showed strength of character brilliantly while keeping her resolve in the role of Sandra, she had a student boyfriend Tim played by Hayden Tierney whose life is a complete contrast to Sandra’s life. She is anxious to move in with Tim and she was frustrated at trying to explain to the family that times were changing and there were more opportunities for younger people in the world, but unfortunately the gap between the generations was widening and old rules and prejudices were still observed. Laura and Hayden were very believable in their roles and Hayden’s facial expressions were excellent as his character appeared perplexed and a bit overwhelmed when he was placed in strange and unusual situations that were unfamiliar to him.

 Dialogue was clear with good projection and there was clarity of words meaning the story could be followed. This is a difficult play to perform as it is rather lengthy and heavy on dialogue. However, there was some minor hiccups, so I would like to mention just a couple of things just to be constructive. Some Liverpudlian accents were excellent, and their dialogue was clear, but other characters did slip back into their native speech at times. Also the action needed to be taken at a good pace in order for the comedy to work and to keep the audience’s attention, unfortunately the pace did slow down at times when it seamed some of the cast were not sure of their lines which did affect the comic timing on occasions, meaning some of the comedy was lost. However, this did not appear to affect the audience’s enjoyment of the evening.

This Play was in two acts and there were different excellent sets for each act as the action was set in two different houses with the same layout, but they were decorated and dressed vey differently. I must congratulate set designer Tony McAughey, Stage Manager Jane Tingle Prout and the set construction crew, stage crew, and properties for their brilliant challenging work, a great deal of thought and time must have gone into getting the sets and stage ready for the actors to perform on. The substantial number of props used in this play meant the cast could occupy themselves when on stage even when not involved in dialogue or the action, helping them to maintain their character throughout the performance. There was also very good technical input with Paul Taylor on lighting design and Matthew Hutcheon and Evan Taylor on sound. Costumes fitted the era and gave the 70s feel and fitted each character’s individual personalities, adding authenticity to the production.

Congratulations to all involved in this production including front of house. It was a good evening's entertainment, and it was obvious that everyone must have worked hard bringing this play to the stage. Thank you for making us so welcome

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