| According to Brian Haw – Review by Kate Campbell
One of the perks of being a volunteer usher at theatre is getting a front row seat to see the production and I quite like the chance to see things I wouldn’t necessarily normally choose to see - like a lucky dip really and I think we all try and like things a bit more if they are free, well I do anyway. Like any freebies, I try and convince myself that I need and like it anyway, when in fact most freebies are just gimmicky junk that clutters our lives and are usually things we have no discernible need for. OK, a free visit to the theatre might be slightly different from the little toys they give away in McDonalds, but then maybe we have a certain expectation of quality depending on how much money we have paid. In my previous life as a journalist I once reviewed an opera – something I wouldn’t normally choose to pay to go and see but the chance to see a bit of the glitz and glamour of one for free and then be paid to write about it – why not I thought. I now don’t need to go and see another opera again but I think the point I am labouring to make is that I went fairly without huge expectations because I hadn’t paid for the privilige. The pay-off was a free night out -liking it would have been a bonus. And so it was when I turned up at the theatre ready to do some ushering for the Youth Music Theatre’s production of According to Brian Haw. To be honest, I hadn’t really registered the ‘Youth Music’ part of the deal so only discovered that bit as I was ushering people into the theatre, at which point my ‘ambassador for the theatre’ smile slipped just slightly. I had registered the Brian Haw bit and was interested to find out how the YMT would tackle the subject of a man who, during the production of the show, spent his 3,000th day camped out in Parliament Square as a one-man anti-war protest. The idea of this interpretation being done through the art of choral singing by a Youth Music ensemble, with the odd solo thrown in as a showcase, wasn’t, I have to admit, hugely appealing but as I said, I hadn’t shelled out for the privilige so felt a bit more lassez-faire about the whole thing. And then the show began. And I can honestly say I was really impressed. The singing was better than I could have hoped. The subject matter was dealt with at a deeper than expected level and the angle, that of the different experiences of five young people living through and during the time of the second war with Iraq – well, it made me really think about the personal effect of war on ordinary people’s lives. And it made me remember that there are innocent people caught up in these battles. That innocent men, women and, hardest of all for me as a mother, children, are really actually dying every day. That war affects not just those who are fighting it and living it literally, but also the people left behind, or the people who simply get forgotten because of it. It was, and this might sound strange to say, a pleasure to watch the YMT’s take on Brian Haw and his protest. It was thought-provoking, not too obvious and occasionally even funny. The only bit I really didn’t like was the decision to portray the wife of Brian Haw and mother of his children as a pinny-wearing, silently stoic woman with a hoover permanently grafted to the end of her arms and problem-bearing shoulders the size of an eighties power suit. It didn’t feel too dependent on tugging at the heart-strings and playing the emotional blackmail card even though it did make me cry a little at the end. Thanks YMT for challenging my generalised opinions of Youth Music Theatre – I would willingly see the show again, which is a lot more than can be said of Aida. |
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