Joy Watters reviews 'a fine piece with some particularly outstanding performances from the female players'.
The National Theatre of Scotland celebrates the work of Joe Corrie, the miner-playwright on his own territory with a stunningly re-worked version of his 1926 play, showing a Fife mining community brought to its knees by the General Strike.
The venue,
Pathhead Hall in Kirkcaldy, is perfect, just the sort of place the work would
originally have been seen in. Corrie wrote as a fund-raising venture for the
miners while he too was on strike. It is also a reminder of the kind of hall
where an audience could see radical theatre in the past, courtesy of companies
such as 7:84. The NTS is to be congratulated for continuing the proud tradition
with a piece of rarely seen Scots writing.
In Time O'Strife has a tight-knit ensemble, meshing together to act, sing or dance with utter commitment. A four-piece band has an integral role to play, conveying the highs and lows of the conflicts that the strike forces on the community.
NTS associate
director Graham McLaren not only directed and designed the production but has also
adapted the original text. The songs, poetry and other prose which he has
chosen to enhance the original text beautifully convey the emotions of the
miners and families trapped in a losing battle. There are references to the
miners' strike of the 80s through images on TV sets, and the voice of the time,
Margaret Thatcher, predominates.
In Time of Strife is a fine piece with some particularly outstanding performances from the female players, representing the women who were the back bone of the strike. Even as the food and money ran out, they urged their men not to go back to the pits. Vicki Manderson embodied the particular resolve of the distaff side, while Hannah Donaldson movingly conveyed a young woman in conflict, torn between her fiancé who blacklegs to make a new life for them and her loyalty to the strikers.
The men are
guilt-ridden at no longer being the breadwinners but cannot break the strike. The
ensemble never overstep the mark into mawkishness as the destruction of lives
unfolds. Everyone is driven into the ground and the men back underneath it to
put food on the table.
Runs until Saturday October 12
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