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36 • Visit us @ www.ChampNews.com CMBA The Champion • Wednesday 1 May 2013
ENTERTAINMENT
Champion review
Play spoilt by political bias
Review by
Ron Ellis
• Down Our Street
• Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool
ACTIVE Drama’s production of Brian
McCann’s musical play, depicting the story of
Birkenhead’s Cammell Laird’s shipyard, has
been relaunched at the Royal Court.
The show starts in the 1800’s with company
founder William Laird setting out his dream of
making Birkenhead a world centre of
shipbuilding excellence and a vibrant
community for its workers, noting the town’s
fine attributes like the Park (model for New
York’s Central Park), Argyle Theatre (model
for London Palladium) and the fine Georgian
buildings.
But the action takes place down the street of
terraced houses, against the backdrop of a
large screen cataloguing the passing years,
showing the devastation of the war and the
fluctuating fortunes of the yard with dubious
political decisions affecting the business and
the problems of falling orders bringing
inevitable redundancies.
When orders start to drop off and the
management explain that men have to be laid
off when there are no ships to build, the
workers bemoan the change to casual labour
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and the influx of Irish immigrants stealing their
jobs, suggesting that the managers are lining
their own pockets by paying lower wages to
casual workers.
There was a left wing bias in the production
that made the BBC seem almost Fascist and
when Mrs Thatcher walked on stage in a cameo
spot (along with Edward I, Charles Dickens
and John Lennon), the audience shamefully
booed , which said more about them than it did
about Mrs Thatcher.
All the cast went about their varied roles with
gusto and one can imagine the songs being
sung in a dockside pub of a Saturday night.
Comedy legend, Micky Finn, looking more
like Peter Lorre every year, invited laughs just
by walking onstage; ‘Benidorm’s Crissy Rock,
as a scally housewife, could screech for
England; Billy Butler’s wife, Lesley, and Lindzi
Germain showed they had excellent singing
voices; Roy Brandon, with a hangdog
expression reminiscent of post–war comedian,
Reg Dixon, has come far since his Bilbo Baggins
days. But the stand out moment for me was
Lynne Fitzgerald describing how she was
invited to launch one of the ships. A comedy
classic.
This new version has been lengthened by half
an hour from the original script which was not
the best move as, after the first 90 minutes, it
started to become repetitive.
Star Rating: 5 out of 10. Spoilt by the political
bias.
“You know it makes sense!”
Call Dave on 07932 844130 • www.carbootle.co.uk
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BBC Radio 5 live’s
Big Day Out to
come to Liverpool
Report by Henry James
PRIMAL Scream, will perform live at BBC
Radio 5 live’s Big Day Out 2013 at Echo Arena.
The band will join hosts Colin Murray, Robbie
Savage and Mark Chapman for the event on
Saturday, June 1 for an evening of sporting wit,
banter and comedy, all topped off with an
exclusive live set featuring tracks from their
new album More Light and extensive back
catalogue.
The band said: “We have a busy summer
lined–up, but it’ll be great to be back in front of
a Liverpool audience for this one off gig.
“We’re all big football fans, so are looking
forward to listening to the banter, before
rounding off the night with a selection of songs
from the new album ‘More Light’, along with
some classic tracks.”
BBC Radio 5 live’s Big Day Out kicks–off at
5.30pm on Saturday, June 1, and will be
broadcast live across the network.
Fans will be entertained with two of the radio
station’s iconic sports shows, Fighting Talk –
hosted by Colin alongside a panel of favourites
including John Rawling, Bob Mills and Justin
Moorhouse – and 606 – presented by Robbie
and Mark and featuring Jason Roberts and
Darren Fletcher. Primal Scream will then take
to the stage.
Anyone who purchases a ticket before 6pm
this Saturday, May 4 will automatically be
entered into a giveaway draw for tickets to an
intimate Fighting Talk show, which will
broadcast live from the Echo Arena on the
morning of Saturday, June 1 (11am–12pm).
For more information log onto
www.bbc.co.uk/5live.
SOUTHPORT Dramatic Club’s final offering
of the season is Fawlty Towers, based on the
incredibly successful BBCTV series, written
by John Cleese and Connie Booth.
Robbie Savage
Colin Murray
Fawlty Towers to be staged at Little Theatre
TUESDAY 7TH MAY
Briars Hall Hotel, Briars Lane, Nr Ormskirk. 7.30pm start.
Tickets £13 online OR box offi ce OR 4 People
admittance for £10 each with this voucher
www.joepower.co.uk Limited tickets call 01695 575979
Code NA
Code NA
The play opens on Friday, May 10 at
Southport Little Theatre and runs to
Saturday, May 18. Book now by phone on
01704 5305211/530460.
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