And Did Those Feet - the reviews keep coming

If you haven't already seen these here are a few more reviews for And Did Those Feet:

This one over at Manchester Confidential

And another from UK Theatre Network

But isn't only the professional reviewers that seem to like this production. Over at Pleased Sheep Forum attenders have also been writing good things about the play. Thanks Fran!

I went to see the play today and wasn't surprised to discover all the brilliant reviews were spot on. It was a wonderful play, full of humour, pathos and Bolton pride and the audience were obviously loving it all the way through.

Quite a lot of the audience were pensioners and I could hear various comments being made around me in hushed whispers when something in the play had brought back memories of some kind. There were several things that stood out for me:

The humour, which was really well written and equally well acted. Jeff Hordley especially made me laugh, he has great comic timing and can raise a giggle just from an expression on his face, which can't be all that easy when your on a stage and not in front of a t.v. camera.

The feeling of family. Individual familes and the 'family' of football fans. They were all clearly defined, so that although you'd only just been introduced to them, in minutes, you felt you knew them, you could imagine their histories even though you never saw them played out. Although there were only five or six football fans visible on stage at the matches, surprisingly, it was easy to imagine them being surrounded by thousands more like them.

The pathos. Well, there were three characters who painted that picture for us, one of which of course, was Chris. I think one of the reviewers mentioned that words weren't really needed for you to feel that pathos coming from the stage, (or words to that effect), and how right they were. The first time we see Billy's ghost, (Chris) he is simply sat watching and listening to his mum as she 'talks to him', knowing in her heart that he's 'somewhere' listening to her and ( I think...) because she knows he's listening, she's trying hard to sound cheerful and hide her tears. It's very obvious that Billy is hurting 'for her' as he watches her, without a word being spoken.

Later, Billy has a scene with his dad, who is finding it harder to hide the loss he feels for his son and Billy tries to find a way to get through to his dad and help him cope. Played brilliantly by both Chris and James Quinn, it was one that made you hold your breath. (It's the one we get a tiny glimpse of on the Octagon site. I knew when I saw that vid, I was going to love that scene and I wasn't wrong.)

So in just under two hours, they managed to make two families and their hopes, dreams and problems come to life, they made you laugh, made you feel guilty for laughing as they reminded you of how Billy should have been there to share it all, made you want to cry and made you damned glad Bolton won the cup that year!

Plus it seems readers of The Bolton News enjoyed the performance so much that they just to write in! You can see what they said here and here.

If you haven't seen it yet, then I must warn you that tickets have almost sold out. I am informed that there are a few seats left for the Wednesday matinee so call the ticket office now on 01204 520661.