North and South

It is the final week of Pitlochry Festival Theatre's summer season and I'm on my way to see the last ever matinee performance of 'Heritage'.  I loved PFT's staging of The Crucible and I've been told that 'Heritage' is in the same theatrical ballpark.  Earlier in the week, I had caught the epic 'North and South' and I was hoping to make my last review of the summer season a double-header.

However, the automotive gods have other ideas.  Leaving Perth my car starts to shake disconcertingly and by the time I reach Luncarty, it feels like I am sitting on top of an ancient, bone-rattling washing machine.  Slightly concerned that the engine might explode on the long road to Pitlochry I decide to drive, slowly, back to my local garage.

It turns out the brake disk on the driver's side have somehow become seized on and as a result, the brakes have pretty much disintegrated.  I'm not going anywhere.  I guess that's what I get for always leaving everything to the last possible minute.  

Earlier in the week I actually made it as far as Pitlochry.  I remembered that my mum used to love those 'grim up North' miniseries that always used to be on ITV in the '90s and reading the synopsis of the play I thought she would like to come. 

To be honest, I originally booked the tickets on the strength of the title and I had foolishly assumed it was going to be about the American Civil War rather than a
'trouble at mill' dramedy.

My expectations were fairly low as romances set against an industrial revolution backdrop aren't usually my preferred genre.  I was pleasantly surprised though as the story, based on a novel by Elizabeth Gaskell, was definitely more Charles Dickens than Catherine Cookson.

Long's portrayal of Proctor as flawed and vulnerable is persuasive and life-like.I have to admit that I was wholly ignorant of Gaskell and her oeuvre but I have since learned that 'North and South' was originally published piece-meal in the Dickens edited Household Words magazine. 

In this adaptation by Janys Chambers, the play's depiction of the relationship between the nouveau rich mill owner John Thornton and the principled, transplanted southerner, Margaret Hale, is remarkably nuanced.

The cast is, as ever, faultless.  Claire Drago's performance as Hale is the glue that holds the play together.  In her interactions with different protagonists, she offers us a window into their worlds.  We get glimpses of a faded, on the ropes, aristocracy, a captain of industry whose callous, contemptuous exterior belies his capacity for change and a beleaguered and impoverished working class willing to
compromise their principals.

Harry Long as John Thornton, as in The Crucible, once again plays to perfection a man put in an impossible position.  The Crucible's John Proctor is perhaps a less problematic hero and the stakes are lower here Long's portrayal of Proctor as flawed and vulnerable is persuasive and life-like.

For my money, Alexander Bean is probably the most versatile and imminently watchable of the repertory actors.  He has an instantly likeable quality and lends an endearing naturalism to any part he undertakes. 

GALLERY

It helps that even the smaller roles in North and South are extremely well written and none of the characters seems to be there just to forward the plot.   

The set by Amanda Stodtley is among my favourites of the summer season.  It is simultaneously utilitarian and metaphoric.  The way the trees are transformed into smoke-belching chimney stacks nicely underlines the environmental themes of the play.

I also loved the use of a large community cast.  Their 30 plus numbers give 'North and South' a real epic feel and sound.  My mum is suitably impressed with the production too.  She realises shortly after it starts that she has both read the novel and seen the 2004 TV adaptation and I spend most of the interval trying to dodge her attempts to tell me the ending.

'North and South' far exceeded my expectations and once again the quality of Pitlochry Festival Theatres cast shone through.  If you haven't already been (or even if you have) I can wholeheartedly recommend a trip to the PFT.  Just check your brakes first.

Colin was gifted two tickets for North & South at Pitlochry Festival Theatre, in return for his honest review of the show.  Pitlochry Festival Theatre's Winter Season has now begun.