Reviewer of the Month

Over at the Manchester Evening News website, a review of And Did Those Feet is one of the entrants for October's Reviewer of the Month. This was spotted and kindly posted by Joanna over the the Pleased Sheep Forum (Thanks Joanna!).

And Did Those Feet @ Bolton Octagon
Dyan Colclough

THE audience is taken back to a time before footballers became a brand and the game united a community not profit driven entrepreneurs. Bolton Wanderers inclusion in the 1923 FA Cup Final is central to this uplifting play, however its message extends to parallel other unifiers of community.

A few years earlier WWI saw the community waving off their ‘team’ of men folk to fight for King and Country. James Quinn and Susan Twist (Hilda & Alf) brilliantly evoke the full consequences for those left behind when family members paid the ultimate price for victory.

Chris Finch convincingly portrays the spirit of their son whose presence shows the futility of a lost generation.

The Government's failure to deliver its promise of, ‘A land fit for heroes,’ saw soldiers returning to unemployment and social problems.

Here unity is again explored through the energetic and optimistic Jim, (wonderfully characterised by Paul Simpson), who with fellow comrades, believes that Revolution is the way forward. While the likes of Jim are seeking political change others put their faith in the Lord.

Hayley Jane Standing is perfectly cast as Martha a steadfast member of a dwindling congregation whose church is gradually losing its unifying influence.

This is highlighted through the wedding of Martha and Ted (superbly played by Jeff Hordley) which coincides with the cup final and even the vicar, would prefer to spend the day at Wembley.

Bob's enlightening narrative of the team's history throughout the play (captivatingly revealed by Martin Barrass) provides the thread which binds the community to football and Bob's 200 mile walk to Wembley encapsulates the depth of commitment its players exacted from those they represented.

There is no doubting that the audience has its emotions thoroughly exercised throughout this play and leave the theatre as equally united as those Wanderers supporters of 1923.

This is achieved through the collaboration of excellent writing, and directing and faultless casting.

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.

An Evening With Adrian Mitchell

Doyen of performance poets, Adrian Mitchell has been delighting audiences with his work for over 50 years - he celebrated his 75th birthday recently. His pacifist politics are infused into his work, which despite deep political content, combines humour with pathos and warmth. You can listen to / read an interview with Adrian where he talks about his work here.

Mitchell is an active anti-war campaigner who has written about conflicts from Vietnam to Iraq. He famously said 'most people ignore poetry because poetry ignores most people' and has always therefore made his work accessible and relevant to people of all ages.

This exhilarating evening features some old favourites like Tell Me Lies About Vietnam, and some new works in which Mitchell rails against war, and celebrates peace. Weird, wonderful, sad and angry, the poems show that he has lost none of his political fire and humour. Here's a great piece of video footage of Adrian in action reading 'Tell Me Lies About Vietnam' at the International Poetry Incarnation at the Royal Albert Hall, London (1965). Enjoy!




Adrian will be performing at the Octagon on Thursday 1 November. Click here for more information or to book tickets.

A Real Crowd Pleaser

And Did Those Feet and The Octagon has received so much positive feedback that I am sure if the theatre was a person it would be blushing and/or puffing its chest out in a proud fashion. Not only have we had great reviews, and this recent acknowledgement but some lovely comments from our audience.


Here's a really nice email we have received from two very kind ladies:


From: Jill Brown

Sent: 08 October 2007

Subject: And did those feet


What a privilege to be at the Bolton Octagon tonight. We were gripped from beginning to end by the remarkable production and moving performances from the cast.


When we finally pulled ourselves together and left our seats, we both agreed that it was one of the best plays we had ever seen. For many years we have had Season Tickets for both Bolton and the Exchange, and also travelled to other venues - so we have seen quite a lot! This was very special.


I would be grateful if you could pass on our congratulations and thanks to the cast and company for such an excellent evening.


With best wishes


Jill Brown and Sue Cozens

It's always nice to get good reviews but for audiences to be so delighted with the performance is lovely. So thank you Jill and Sue for your very kind words.

David Jack (centre). Image supplied by: Bolton Archive Service

And in other more football focused news, I have had wind that the daughter of Mr David Jack himself (pictured above) may be coming to see a performance on the recommendation of her cousin who recently attended a performance. I wonder if I can ask her to count the mentions of her talented father during the production?

Rehearsals - Oh What A Lovely War

Oh What A Lovely War rehearsals are now in full swing. It's a big cast for us - you can see the full list here. Jason (the Lighting Designer on this show) has proved himself a bit nifty with a camera and managed to get a few photos of the cast in rehearsals.

' I don't want to be a soldier' I'd rather do the hokey cokey instead! The boys being put through their paces
(left -right: Shane Gould (assistant choreographer) David Westbrook, Christopher Fry, John McArdle, Simeon Truby and Matt Connor)

'Gassed last night'. All that dancing is obviously taking its toll. Either that or they are working on playing dead!
(clockwise from top: Nicola Bolton, Helen Power and Shane Gould (background), Matthew Kelly, John McArdle and Matt Rixon)

'Your king and country want you' and so does your Director. Mark and Conrad discuss military strategem and tactics!
(left - right: Mark Babych (Artistic Director) and Conrad Nelson (Director of A Christmas Carol and Lisa's Sex Strike)

'They were only playing leapfrog' Team bonding...with scripts!
(clockwise from top: Mark Babych (Artistic Director), Matthew Kelly, Jeff Hordley, Simeon Truby, Matt Rixon, David Westbrook and John McArdle)

'Hold your hand out you naughty boy'
(left - right: Beverley Edmunds (choreographer), Matt Connor and Simeon Truby)

Altogether now 'Oh it's a lovely war'
(Siena Lloyd (left) and Helen Power)

'Are we downhearted?' Obviously Mr Truby isn't!
(Simeon Truby)

Creative Partnerships

I have been sent a link to this blog. Daniel Bye, who writes about how he 'makes theatre, watches football and runs by the canal' has written this article about arts funding and he mentions partnership between the University of Bolton and the Octagon. Below is a snippet from the article:

I predict that companies working in intelligent partnerships with larger institutions, and with one another, is going to be the future. Witness the wonderful things being done between the Bolton Octagon and Bolton University. Masses of students are gaining experience in all departments of the theatre, the theatre has become an increasing part of its community, and audiences are up. Thanks to a generous initial investment from the University, the Octagon has been able to upscale its ambitions, and thanks to the spirit of friendship between the two the University has been able to trumpet all sorts of successes.

Read the full article here

Aww shucks its always nice to get a compliment but as he rightly points out none of this would have been possible without the support of the University. Okay this is beginning to stray into award acceptance speech material so I'll finish here.....

The making of Millboys, Chavs and Space Cadets

One of our Youth Theatre attenders, Jaymi Sulley (Thank you Jaymi!), has been keeping a diary on her involvement with their current project, the multi-media theatrical journey that is Millboys, Chavs and Space Cadets. It gives future and wannabe activ8-ers a chance to see what goes on at the Youth Theatre, so if you would like to know what's involved, please read on.

Day One

Today was the first day at drama school. The main focus of the day was to get to know the cast and staff involved in our production.

When we arrived we all stood in a circle and had a ball which we threw and had to say the name of the recipient of the ball. We played a few more games and then sat down and got serious. We discussed the basic storyline of the performance and were split into groups to perform a little piece of the script.

I enjoyed making new friends and I also learnt how co-operation is a key role in your part of a production.

Day Two

I arrived at drama today with the fabulous news that I was going to be dancing for about four hours of my afternoon. I was more disappointed when I found out that half of my fellow production / cast team members were singing all morning. I suppose I have to make sacrifices to be a reliable member of the team. Although the dancing was a low point, I had a morning of acting ahead of me which was good ;) !

We all went off into groups and went over parts of the script and then acted it out in front of the rest of the group. After lunch we were greeted by a dance teacher (choreographer) who taught us all a dance. I didn't enjoy it much as I am naturally unable to dance, but after a long session it was worth the embarrassment as the dance was awesome.

Today I enjoyed working with new people and I learned that patience really is a virtue.

Day Three
Our turn to sing today and I was so glad! During our morning we were with Pete (the music producer alongside me) and we did basic vocal warm-ups, to get our voices ready, such as number chords. We basically said numbers as a chord with 1 being low and 8 being high but to confuse matters we had to go back down in chords e.g. 1,1,2,1,1,2,3,2,1....

After the warm up we got our song words for 'Let the great big world keep turning', learnt the chorus and when Pete thought we were good enough he made us sing solo. After all the fun of singing, we were placed with the group to continue with script reading.

Today I enjoyed the singing as I love singing. I learnt how I can use my voice to suit the basic style of the song. I also learnt a new song and vocal exercises.

Day Four

Today we arrived and played a few games and then we decided to do the Mill scenes, creating machinery and workers we put together a little routine that emphasises the mood / feel of the scene.

After we had produced the scene we performed it and it turned out great. Our afternoon was just a recap of what we had done during the week so far. We went through the dance and sang our songs. With any spare time we had to went through the script.

Day Five

We found out our parts today. I am a Millhand, Musical Dancer, a futuristic museum exhibit and a talent show performer! Because we didn't have a script for the talent show, we improvised a talent show. I was grouped and we decided to do a Spice Girl mick take! It was so much fun. Later on Ellie and Caz decided what type of music / talent they wanted to involve. This became my chance to out ideas down for what music and lyrics we need for each performance.

Day Six

Today was when we got down to the real business of rehearsals. As I am not a lead placement, I was given a large opportunity to rethink my ideas for the music and lyrics needed for the show. So far my ideas are quite blunt and amateur but as an amateur it is all that is expected of me!

So far though we have a heavy metal band, Exit Shikiri (which is a rip off of a current rock band named Enter Shikari), performing Sorry You're Not A Winner. I also have to do music and lyrics to the song that Wicked (an all girl pop combo so I am told - Ed) dance to. It's quite difficult as I can see them using a cheesy pop style song.

Day Seven

Today we went through the Mill scene and perfected it. We then watched everybody else do their scenes and all put forward ideas but Ellie did most of it.

During the time I had, I tried again to put some music beats together but it didn't work.

Day Eight

Today we did the same as yesterday...rehearsals, putting ideas forward and went through the dances, song and the talent show.

Day Nine

Again a whole day of run throughs with the main characters.....

I think that gives us a nice insight into the elements that make up a production and I am sure there is many an actor out there that feels the same as Jaymi about having to dance. I know Barrie Rutter does!

Millboys, Chavs and Space Cadets will be performed at Bolton Lads and Girls Club on Saturday 17 November with performances at 2.30pm and 7.30pm (performance times are subject to change).