What a disappointment. Beth Steel’s much-anticipated, much-delayed play is a confused mix of family saga, melodrama and political screed. At its core is an affecting, layered performance from Anne-Marie Duff as the matriarch of a Midlands working-class family, whose lives we follow from 1965 to 2019. Blanche McIntyre’s baggy production features lots of people explaining Labour politics, female disempowerment, and – obliquely - Brexit to each other, but can’t unscramble the script.
We’re in a British manufacturing and mining town, unidentified but clearly Nottingham. Duff’s Constance has three children – twins Agnes and Jack, and Laura, who has learning difficulties – with stolid shop-steward Alastair (Stuart McQuarrie). She cleans her front step every day but dreams of a life of showtunes and Bette Davis quips. Jack wants to be a communist, Agnes wants to be independent. It’s not too much of a spoiler to say that neither they nor Constance get what they want. In any case, kitchen disagreements about Harold Wilson are interrupted when Laura is revealed to be pregnant.
