Green City Action, in conjunction with the Sheffield College Norton centre performing arts department, is to host a day of free outside theatre performance in Abbeyfield Park. The event is funded by the Awards for All grant project of the National Lottery, with further support from Burngreave New Deal for Communities.
There will be two plays each performed twice over the day. The first play is Willy Russell’s hugely successful Blood Brothers (the non musical version) and Peter Whelan’s widely acclaimed Accrington Pals.
Blood Brothers is the hugely popular play by the well-known author of Educating Rita, Willy Russell. It is fast moving and perceptive, entertaining and thought-provoking, funny yet ultimately tragic. It tells the tale of twin brothers who are born into a large working-class family and what happens when their mother decides to have one of them adopted. Blood Brothers looks at the differences and conflicts of their upbringings, their relationships with each other and with their real and adopted mothers.
Accrington Pals is a lyrical and absorbing play set in the Lancashire town of Accrington during the first two years of the Great War. The ‘Pals’ are the men from the local volunteer battalion who march high-spiritedly of to war. Their experiences in the trenches are contrasted with those of the women left behind, adapting to new patterns of life and drawing together in the face of social and sexual deprivation. In particular, the attitudes of May, the hard-working and strong-minded vegetable-stall holder, are contrasted with those of her idealistic and naively optimistic lodger Tom, and also with those of Eva, her generous-hearted friend. At times funny, at times sad, the play paints a moving and powerful picture of the changes in civilian life during wartime. The action takes place between autumn 1914 and July 1916. The background is reality. The ‘Accrington Pals’ battalion of Kitchener's New Army was raised and destroyed as described in the play. Otherwise all the characters in the play, and the events of their lives, are entirely fictitious.
This event is building on the success of the production of Dennis Potters Blue remembered Hills that were staged in Abbeyfield Park 2003.
The idea behind the staging of the event is to offer greater exposure of the arts to the community of Burngreave. Burngreave is an area rich in cultural diversity and bursting with talent waiting to be brought to fruition. Through hosting events like Theatre in the Park and the award winning Abbeyfield Park Multicultural Festival, Green city Action aims to offer local people the opportunity to step into and experience the world of entertainment and creative craft.
By setting the plays outside in the park the shows gain an additional magnetic ambience that enhances the atmospheric feel of the production for the audience.
This is an event not to be missed…
