Downstairs, in Fenton town hall’s cute cafe, local theatregoers spot me as an out-of-towner and begin speaking of their region’s once glorious past, from its potteries to its literary godfather in Arnold Bennett, before getting on to Brexit and this corner of Stoke-on-Trent, which, they say, has been so badly “left behind”.
Upstairs, Bennett’s long-gone world of wealth, upward-mobility and opportunity, brought to life on the hall’s handsome ballroom, gives their words poignancy. The drama features the fictional town of Bursley in 19th-century Stoke and its protagonist is the incorrigible Denry Machin, a left-behind of the Victorian era at the start and humble son of a washerwoman.
