BRASSED OFF?

You will be if you missed this gem of a production!

The ‘House Full’ sign displayed outside the Plaza Theatre almost every night last week was an indication that something pretty special was going on inside – indeed only on the first two nights were a few single seats available as the Romsey Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society (RAODS) and Michelmersh Silver Band (MSB) co-production of Brassed Off became the hottest ticket in town. What had started as a slightly inebriated conversation between the Band Secretary and RAODS members in the Plaza Bar following an MSB concert some 4 years earlier had come to fruition in a spectacularly successful way.

Casting had begun in November of 2008, with female band members declining to audition for the role of flugel player ‘Gloria Stits’ – the band’s own flugel player, Martin Prince had also declined on the grounds that he lacked the necessary equipment (!) - so the hunt was on to find an actress who could either play, or mime very convincingly! Against the odds in walked Alison Vincent, talented amateur actress and erstwhile flugel player – the answer to Director Heather Whitham’s prayers, and the Brassed Off casting had begun. Rehearsing for the actors began in February, but anyone who knows the play and brass banding will know that the music is not particularly taxing so the band could afford to relax until early May. The challenges of playing Florentine March huddled in a stairwell, or The William Tell Overture with 12 real players, 4 miming actors and a musically-challenged actor conducting were yet to come! Actors and musicians alike were forced out of their comfort zones as band learned to ‘act’ and cast to mime convincingly. With MSB split into two bands to allow everyone to participate, plus two casts of children to comply with regulations, rehearsals were at first, total chaos with the Director quickly adding brass bands to animals and children in her list of ‘things never to work with’!  Out of chaos, however, an inspired production slowly emerged and at last opening night came around.

THE PLAY

Is it a play? A musical? Well neither and both actually – it’s a play packed full of comedy, pathos and high drama with the added ingredient of live music performed by the cast throughout. Paul Allen’s stage adaptation of Mark Herman’s original screenplay for the hit 1996 film 'Brassed Off' was brought to the Plaza Theatre in Romsey last week in a co-production by Michelmersh Silver Band and Romsey Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society (RAODS). Set in 1994 in the fictional town of Grimley, the play tells the story of a town still bearing the scars of the miners’ strikes of the 1980s, and now facing the closure of the pit at the heart of the community. The story centres round the all-male colliery brass band, its members, their wives and families as they face the prospect of job losses and hardship. The men seek solace in their ale and their music, knowing that the band too will fold with the closure of the pit. The women spend their days picketing at the pit gates in an attempt to save the jobs of their men, whilst inevitably dreaming of what they might do with the redundancy pay-out on offer.

Allen’s script convincingly draws on the gritty humour of the characters caught up in the struggle to save their community and to reach the National Brass Band Championships in the Royal Albert Hall. From the moment the off-stage band strikes up with the march ‘Death or Glory’ as the miners, on a darkened stage lit only by their pit helmet lamps, tramp wearily off shift, the audience is captured and transported into the lives of the residents of Grimley. All is not doom and gloom however – the RAODS cast milk every ounce of comedy out of the script. Vera (Rosemary Richards) and Rita (Meriel Shepherd) as the all- knowing, but big-hearted wives of bandsmen Harry (Frank Allen) and Jim (Mike Bull), provide the perfect foil to the cynical humour of their men and all four are hilarious drunks as they ‘celebrate’ the band’s failure in the Saddleworth Marching Contests. Band members too prove to be pretty convincing drunks [are we surprised?] in the Saddleworth scene, their performances descending in to farce as they go from village to village and pub to pub!

Tim Sullivan excels as Danny, conductor of the band and passionate believer in the value of music. Few in the audience will have failed to be moved by his emotional speech in the final scene as his beloved band wins the National Championship, or by the band’s performance of ‘Danny Boy’ outside of his hospital window, on a darkened stage, again lit only by the lamps on their miners’ helmets.  Danny’s son Phil and daughter-in-law Sandra, played convincingly by Wayne Ings and Fiona Mackay, are in dire financial straits threatening their marriage and their family. Driven to despair, Phil attempts suicide and Ings is inspired in the scene in which he spirals into depression and ‘hangs’ himself on stage to audible gasps from the audience. The haunting strains of Jerusalem played by an off-stage solo cornet throughout wrings even more emotion from an already heart-rending scene.

Director Heather Whitham’s inspired casting of flugel player Alison Vincent as Gloria, the first female to play in the band, gives the audience the added treat of  a non-mimed rendition of ‘Orange Juice’ at each performance and provides some believable on-stage chemistry between Vincent and Mat Robinson as band Romeo, Andy Barrow. Any loss of momentum in the script during the second half can be forgiven in this production as Whitham deftly keeps the pace going throughout with the help of her very strong cast and the excellent musical score.   

The ‘meat’ of strong performances – and there truly is not a weak performance in this production – is seasoned by the music performed live throughout, (even when the band is not seen), by the Michelmersh Silver Band. I would defy even non-brass fans to remain un-moved by the sound of the band in the more poignant moments of the play and in the rousing performance of The William Tell Overture as Grimley Colliery Band are declared National Champions. Even the blatantly jingoistic finale of ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ is forgivable in the context of being, as Danny puts it, claimed back from Tory Party by them as have land under t’finger nails, and reprised with gusto as the cast take their bows and leave the stage. In hindsight, the director may just wish that words had been provided for the very enthusiastic audiences to sing along with, and flags for them to wave – on the evidence I saw they would have raised the roof during their standing ovation!