As part of their Power Plays Season, the Old Electric theatre held a competition to write a play to be presented on their stage by a small group of actors. All centred around Blackpool as a unifying theme, the winning three of which were staged together in one night. Craving some culture and at the bargain price of a fiver, I decided to bob along for the evening and, incessant sharer of my own opinions that I am, this is what I saw.
The Dreamer – Jake Cillian Wolf
In the first of the plays, the story focuses around the experiences of Oscar/Ocean, and their desire to escape the town of their birth, especially the trauma of witnessing their mother in the last days of terminal cancer. We saw how this desire plays out in relation to themselves, their former partner and current friend, and their younger sister.
Spanning the breadth of a year and the width of the Atlantic, the story jumps between Blackpool and Florida, before and after Ocean makes the decision to move away from their life to find peace and happiness in a land of sunshine, warm seas and Disney World. We see Ocean in Blackpool, making the justification to themselves and the other characters of running from their troubles, and then a year later, figuratively and literally washed up on a beach in Florida.
Inebriated and suicidal, they lament their failure to find that peace to a most unlikely therapist in the shape of a Siren, who has found the letters in bottles that Ocean had cast into the sea as a symbolic communication to the life they had left behind.
Delightfully hallucinogenic, but also extremely grounded in its tale, this play skillfully makes use of costume changes, lighting and scenery movement to convey the shift and morphing of time and place. The weight of the exchanges between the 3 more prosaic characters is cut through well with the comedic relief of the Siren, and neither element ever drowns out the other. A moving tale about the importance of home, and how sometimes it takes a move away to clarify that.
The Queen Of The Sun – Leah Philbin
The second play of the evening is set entirely in a Blackpool pub called The Sun Inn (whether this is intended to be Blackpoolโs real life Sun Inn is not clear), opening with the owner, Jamieson closing for the night as flickering lights foreshadow otherworldly interventions to come.
Onto the scene runs former Sun barmaid and current Hollywood star Sarah (also known by her stage name Sienna), who is on the run from assailants unknown and begs for a place to stay โ a place Jamieson happily offers with no questions asked. However, when Jamieson leaves to check on the wiring for those darn lights, the reason for Sarah’s distress becomes clear. Enter Asmodeus (ASMOOOODEUS!!), the Demon of Lust, who has come to collect payment for a bargain Sarah struck ten years previously for a decade of success, fame and fortune for the mere price of her eternal soul.
Payment is due and Asmodeus is here to collectโฆ or are they? Despite repeated statements to the contrary, Asmodeus struggles to complete collection, distracted by their time in the streets of Blackpool, the welcoming attitudes of its citizens (particularly the LGBTQ+ scene) and not least the appealing spectacle of the barman, Jamieson.
Midway through the pleading for clemency from Sarah a second demon in the form of Leviathan, Demon of Envy appears, to retrieve Jamiesonโs soul, as he too made a similar bargain (only this time for the continued success of The Sun Inn) on the exact same night. Cue some wonderfully bitchy and snappy (especially given the script in hand aspect of the play) dialogue between the two demons as they bicker about the administrative niceties of soul harvesting.
There’s also some genuinely heartfelt discussions between Asmodeus, Sarah and Jamieson about identity, belonging and acceptance. Asmodeus is increasingly won over by the desire for a life among the queer Blackpool scene where their flamboyant style and less than regulation behaviour is embraced, rather than scorned as it is by Leviathan and the other demons in Hell. Dispatching Leviathanโs attempts to collect Jamiesonโs soul on a technical detail, and refusing to collect Sarahโs on principle, Asmodeus instead chooses exile from Hell and a life on earth with a new identity as the Sunโs titular Queenie.
Sharp, witty and charming, this play represents a wonderful celebration of Blackpool as a town where anything goes, and a demon dressed in a sheer red robe doesnโt garner a batted eyelid or a second look. Again the theme of wishing to escape only to find the inexorable pull to home is central to the story, and the uniqueness of the town in its warmth and tolerance, despite all of its flaws, is a significant player in the narrative.
All four actors do a commendable job with this script and the flow of the dialogue never lets up. Youโre not supposed to play favourites, but I think this was my top play of the night. โHeartwarmingโ feels like a slightly trite term to use, but this slightly off-kilter coming out tale is exactly that.
The Seagull Has Landed – Michael Davies
The most impressive aspect of this play is unveiled before it has begun as we are ushered back into the theatre after an interval. In a tremendously well-realised piece of physical storytelling, the brightly-lit, inverted seating arrangement (assisted by the sound of waves and gulls) instantly transports anyone familiar with Blackpool to the steps of the seawall on the prom before even a word has been spoken.
We are presented with a cast of three human characters, each a slightly caricatured example of what might be considered an archetype of someone you might encounter whiling their time away on the prom for one reason or another. A first-time and critical visitor (in this case a dreaded southerner), a regular tourist from Blackpoolโs traditional East Lancs hinterland, and an excessively proud and protective local. Each character giving a view of the town and each flawed in some aspect of their observation.
Enter the Seagull (I refuse to be drawn into a semantic debate about whether thereโs such a thing as a seagull, there just is, ok?), who can not only talk, but spouts philosophy as well, analysing each of the characters in turn and discussing their particular views on Blackpool and each other, all while nobly and uncharacteristically refusing the offer of some hot, fresh chips. The seagull offers its surprisingly erudite take on the bickering of the three humans while avoiding literal and logical snares and leaves each character with a more nuanced appreciation of the point of view of the others and understanding of themselves.
This play will stir an instant sense of recognition to any native or regular visitor to Blackpool, the sense of place is tangible and easily the most impressive use of the Old Electricโs space that Iโve seen. The physical space and incidental characters that pass by are both familiar and funny. The script manages to praise and celebrate the town without becoming hagiographic, and criticise it without becoming overly stereotyped or cruel. Once again the actors do a tremendous job of conveying their characters, and their performances are so natural and flow so well that I had to check the photographs to remember that they still had their scripts in hand.
That blend of exhaustion, frustration and pride that residents have with this town is well captured in each script.
To varying extents, each play examines identity, place, self, the notion of finding or returning to home, relationships, queer culture and, of course, Blackpool. The town is both the setting and the fifth character of each play, the rock upon which each story is built. Whilst these plays do celebrate the town in their own way, none of them present it uncritically and the often bittersweet relationship, that blend of exhaustion, frustration and pride that residents have with this town is well captured in each script.
Utilising a cast of only four actors (Dominic Treacy, Jas Nisic, Maria Kayum & Kivan Dene), each play therefore maintains a primary cast of 4 characters (although some incidental/background characters do appear) and each script presents an excellent ensemble performance. Although the script-in-hand element was initially jarring, it quickly gave way in light of the natural delivery in each play and I genuinely stopped noticing the scripts were even there. Each play did excellent work with the limitations of the space and set pieces available to them, and each really delivered on varying believable settings.
With their unifying central theme of representing Blackpool, each play tweaked various heartstrings for any local, and each one contained some core truth, certainly about my own relationship with the town: be it the youthful alienation that matured into acceptance and finally pride, or a celebration of its uniqueness, or just a warm nostalgic glow.
Not uncritical views of the town by any means, but still ones that avoid the pitfalls of most of the rhetoric that misunderstands and pre-judges the town. Here the town is seen a neither the run-down recipient of oh so many top 5 categories for decline, or the shabby glamour of the golden mile, sparkling yet vomit-slicked, a destination for stags and hens, pints and fights.
I left the Old Electric entertained and philosophical, and drove home though the lights of the prom, past the tower and the Pleasure Beach, a Friday night on the town still young, and felt at home.
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