Brassed Off - May 2015
Brassed Off - May 2015
Adapted by Paul Allen for the stage - Based on the screenplay by Mark Herman
It's 1992. The miners are on strike, the Grimley colliery is about to close and with the miners torn between redundancy packages and the picket lines Bandleader Danny’s hopes of winning the national brass band competition at the Albert Hall seem like a distant dream. But the arrival of flugelhorn-playing Gloria brings romance, hope and controversy to a Yorkshire brass band and its community on the brink of collapse.
Based on a true story and the 1996 film, Brassed Off is a comedy drama that celebrates the power of music and the capacity of the human spirit to inspire a community to triumph against all the odds.
Featuring rousing live music including Jerusalem, Danny Boy,William Tell Overture Land of Hope and Glory and Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez, played by the Ellington Colliery Brass Band.
Directed by David Richardson. The Stage Manager was Virginia Mayes-Wright.
Special thanks go to the Ellington Colliery Band who provided the musical support. Their music added enormously to the atmosphere and emotion of the play.
A tale of a Yorkshire pit closure told through the colliery band's members is hilarious, but resonates with the Northumberland area as an emotionally -charged piece including live music from Ellington Colliery band.
Brassed Off is the latest production from the thespians at Alnwick Theatre Club and I completely forgot I was watching amateur dramatics.
With a cast of just 18, the smaller spring group of the Alnwick Theatre Group are certainly the best of Alnwick acting I've seen in a while.
For me, this show was extremely hard to find a lead character; you have young Liam Cooke who plays a great narrator - type character, who is symbolic of the town's future and watches his father's and grandfather's world collapse in front of him. Then there is the great romance of Lisa Kelly and James Matthewson, who give very real and believable performances as part of the romantic element of the show. There are brilliant duo performances from Peter Biggers and Matt Bush, and Wendy Richardson and Fiona Cuthbert, who bring light relief to the show alongside another fantastic performance from the acting powerhouse that is Jimmy Dodds.