The Collie's Shed Festival Theatre Edinburgh Studio 10th May 2024 Review
The Collie’s Shed at the Festival Theatre Edinburgh Studio tonight was pretty much a sold out show, and this small Scottish touring production is building upon the success that this work has already had at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2022 and 2023.
This story starts in a local Men’s Shed in East Lothian (according to the programme information) with four ex miners from Bilston Glen Colliery who are, with the planned Scottish Government’s Miners' Strike (Pardons) (Scotland) Bill of 2021, reviewing policing policy during the 1984/85 miner’s strike and under certain conditions overturning convictions against strikers during that time.
For myself, coming from a mining family I have very strong personal views about how the government of the day under the direction of Margaret Thatcher used what was supposed to be a civilian police force and turned it all too often into their own private militia, and for some of our quartet now reflecting back on those times, they obviously share that view with me. As this story unfolds, however, writer Shelley Middler has from interviews and contemporary news sources managed to give different voices and different opinions on the strike, its methods, and in the end its inevitable failure to achieve its goals to these men.
Running close to a Fringe production time of some 50 minutes or so, this work has a very limited time to explore some very complex issues, but a lively script that never stops moving the story forward manages to fit a lot of information and views into a small time frame whilst also giving some real identity to its characters.
The idea of looking back some 40 years is a good one for this story, as we have that look back of these men to their younger days, but do they take the advice of an Oasis song title and “Don’t Look Back In Anger”?
For some the answer is yes, but for others definitely a no. What also happens to someone who is forced to break the strike picket line and go back to work to simply pay their bills and put food on the family table – are they ever forgiven for this?Another idea that works well here is to have very different actors play these men at two very different stages of their life and the older BILLY (KEVIN PARR), TOMMY (ALASDAIR FERGUSON), GLEN (PAUL WILSON) and CHARLIE (STEPHEN CORRAL) give convincing portrayals of men who have had to make some very difficult and often unpopular choices in their life. For some, the impact that their actions in that strike of nearly 40 years ago have had for them ongoing consequences throughout their life, and the community that they once knew was for a large part obliterated during the conflict of the strike itself and the years that followed.
The respective younger version of these men, JOEY LOCKE, CALUM MANCHIP, BEN ROBERT CUNNINGHAM and JOHN GREY are interesting in many ways because we know what happens to them in the years to come, we know what happens to their hopes, dreams and aspirations, and often in this script their futures will have a tinge of bitterness and sweetness in equal measures. For some reason though there is sometimes not that maturity, even in younger years, that miners are so often forced into simply to survive in their harsh working environment. Still, there were good performances by everyone here.
The Miners' Strike (Pardons) (Scotland) Bill was passed by the Scottish Parliament on 26th July 2022. For some it was a welcome gesture, but for others it was simply too late to be of any real impact to their personal lives or their communities.At the end of this show though one thing still puzzles me and that is that Bilston Glen Colliery was actually in Midlothian, so four ex-miners (3 retired one went into different work) from it would have been unlikely to all be in a Men’s Shed in East Lothian.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
This story starts in a local Men’s Shed in East Lothian (according to the programme information) with four ex miners from Bilston Glen Colliery who are, with the planned Scottish Government’s Miners' Strike (Pardons) (Scotland) Bill of 2021, reviewing policing policy during the 1984/85 miner’s strike and under certain conditions overturning convictions against strikers during that time.
For myself, coming from a mining family I have very strong personal views about how the government of the day under the direction of Margaret Thatcher used what was supposed to be a civilian police force and turned it all too often into their own private militia, and for some of our quartet now reflecting back on those times, they obviously share that view with me. As this story unfolds, however, writer Shelley Middler has from interviews and contemporary news sources managed to give different voices and different opinions on the strike, its methods, and in the end its inevitable failure to achieve its goals to these men.
Running close to a Fringe production time of some 50 minutes or so, this work has a very limited time to explore some very complex issues, but a lively script that never stops moving the story forward manages to fit a lot of information and views into a small time frame whilst also giving some real identity to its characters.
The idea of looking back some 40 years is a good one for this story, as we have that look back of these men to their younger days, but do they take the advice of an Oasis song title and “Don’t Look Back In Anger”?
For some the answer is yes, but for others definitely a no. What also happens to someone who is forced to break the strike picket line and go back to work to simply pay their bills and put food on the family table – are they ever forgiven for this?Another idea that works well here is to have very different actors play these men at two very different stages of their life and the older BILLY (KEVIN PARR), TOMMY (ALASDAIR FERGUSON), GLEN (PAUL WILSON) and CHARLIE (STEPHEN CORRAL) give convincing portrayals of men who have had to make some very difficult and often unpopular choices in their life. For some, the impact that their actions in that strike of nearly 40 years ago have had for them ongoing consequences throughout their life, and the community that they once knew was for a large part obliterated during the conflict of the strike itself and the years that followed.
The respective younger version of these men, JOEY LOCKE, CALUM MANCHIP, BEN ROBERT CUNNINGHAM and JOHN GREY are interesting in many ways because we know what happens to them in the years to come, we know what happens to their hopes, dreams and aspirations, and often in this script their futures will have a tinge of bitterness and sweetness in equal measures. For some reason though there is sometimes not that maturity, even in younger years, that miners are so often forced into simply to survive in their harsh working environment. Still, there were good performances by everyone here.
The Miners' Strike (Pardons) (Scotland) Bill was passed by the Scottish Parliament on 26th July 2022. For some it was a welcome gesture, but for others it was simply too late to be of any real impact to their personal lives or their communities.At the end of this show though one thing still puzzles me and that is that Bilston Glen Colliery was actually in Midlothian, so four ex-miners (3 retired one went into different work) from it would have been unlikely to all be in a Men’s Shed in East Lothian.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com