UK Theatre Network

The 2007 sell-out sensation And Did Those Feet by Bolton writers Les Smith and Martin Thomasson is back at the Octagon for a second triumphant run.  This show is living proof that new writing can succeed beyond the purlieus of sophisticated metropolitan audiences and that regional theatregoers are equally hungry for new plays - particularly if they’re about the local football team.

 In 1923 Bolton is an industrial town still recovering from the Great War and further shattered by an economic downturn which brings redundancies and short-time shifts in its wake - not a glimmer of the glamorous Roaring Twenties here.  The only ray of hope for ordinary folk is the Wanderers’ FA Cup prospects and an impossible dream of watching them play in the final at Wembley’s brand new stadium.

 Sport serves mainly as a backdrop for stories about grief, love and politics among a small bunch of diehard Trotters supporters.  Young factory worker and devoted footie fan Ted (Mark Letheren) is trying to arrange his wedding to totally unsporty and very religious Martha (Naomi Radcliffe) but cup ties and cutbacks keep getting in the way.  Their neighbours Alf (Huw Higginson) and Hilda (Susan Twist) still miss their son Billy (Chris Finch), a one-time apprentice player at Burnden Park who died in the trenches, but while Hilda keeps Billy’s memory alive by attending games her husband is pained by the slightest reminder of his loss. 

 The flashbacks to war are genuinely affecting, and the writers create a tangible sense of what the peacetime depression meant for entire communities of working-class labourers.  But there’s also a great deal of warm northern humour, notably from Martin Barrass reprising his role as eccentric newsagent Bob who walks all over the country in reinforced clogs to follow his beloved team.

 The production is revived by its original director Mark Babych, the Octagon’s highly regarded Artistic Director Emeritus, who seems to have added a lustre to an already highly polished product, aided by a revised script which now plays up the celebrated White Horse incident (where a huge mass of unticketed spectators burst through a turnstile and onto the pitch) with its spine-chilling foreshadowing of Hillsborough.  Lesley Hutchinson’s slickly and imaginatively choreographed crowd scenes are a comic treat, but my highlight remains Martin Barrass as the terrier-like Bob, a little Jack Russell of a chap in a flat cap and weskit who practically gets up on his hind legs and wags his tail with enthusiasm when David Jack scores.

 Although I’m still not convinced that And Did Those Feet is a play which has any relevance to an audience outside a BL postcode, it continues to enjoy an undefeated run on its home ground and serves as a marvellous showcase for the combined skills of everyone involved.

And Did Those Feet is on at Bolton Octagon until Saturday 10 April 2010

Tickets: from £9.00

Eves: Mon-Sat @ 7.30

Matinees: Fri 12 March, Sat 13 March, Sat 27 March, Wed 31 March and Sat 10 April

www.octagonbolton.co.uk