Beautiful Thing

Beautiful Thing

By Jonathan Harvey

Royal Exchange Theatre, 14 November 2011

Matthew Tennyson as Jamie and Claire-Louise Cordwell as Sandra. Photo - Jonathan Keenan

Every scene has one or a few jokes, often in the form of a precarious situation, yet the action always reveals character and moves the story forward.

That is perhaps the main reason why Jonathan Harvey’s play is so enjoyable and works so well.  Like as not, another is the character of Sandra, here bringing forth an outstanding performance from Claire-Louise Cordwell, she is the kind of ballsy mother that any gay son would wish to have.

You don’t often get a happy ending in a modern play and, if you do, you rarely feel as though it has been earned or is warranted.  With Beautiful Thing, you strike gold on both counts.  This is a satisfying, feel-good play and has the kind of high-quality production values that we have come to expect from the Royal Exchange.

Beautiful Thing is at the Royal Exchange Theatre until 3 December, further details are here.

Corrie!

Corrie!
By Jonathan Harvey
The Lowry, 16 August 2010

The Corrie! Cast Outside the Rovers Return

Coronation Street, now half a century old, is given the ‘Reduced Shakespeare Co. treatment’ in Jonathan Harvey’s affectionate comedy.

It follows life on the Street from the ‘60s to the present day, and all the legendary women are here: Ena, Hilda, Rita, Gail…  While there are certain recondite allusions that only seven living people will know, this is basically a good night out for fans of the show.  The cast were terrific and they make it a lot of fun, with Leanne Best as Gail (a saga and a half this gal) being the outstanding turn of the night for me, amongst many riches.

In the same sense that economic competition is a form of war, so Coronation Street was a continuation of the ‘kitchen-sink drama’ tradition of British film by televisual means, at least in its early days.  Some might argue that it was, or has become, a dilution of that tradition, rather than a distillation of it.

Curiously, though, the show has retained its freshness, despite the undoubted fact that our world is so unlike the world that existed at its inception.  Is it possible anymore to live a local life, in an age of globalisation and following the advent of the internet?   

The appeal of Coronation Street now lies in its humour, rather than a nostalgia for a vanished village, and that is to its credit.  Watch the show now and it is vibrant and does not seem at all anachronistic.

Corrie! is an entertaining traipse through the show’s 50 year history.  It is at The Lowry until 21 August.  Full details are here.