[An Enemy of the Circle]

Highly Recommended – 4/5

The Coliseum opens up it Autumn/Winter season with a revival of its sell-out 2005 production Brassed Off – and the audience success looks set to repeat this time around, deservedly so IMO.

Having seen the excellent One Big Blow (RLT) at this years Buxton Fringe (which was written in 1980 and also concerned a mining village) I wondered how the two would compare. Well apart from the 14 year gap in time, there are many similarities in terms of the narrative, yet the two are chalk n cheese in terms of the styles of production – One Big Blow was uniquely staged physical theatre, whereas this follows a conventional format which does allow more of the charaters' day-day lives to be experienced with an earthy realism.

It's honest theatre, stripped down to nuts n bolts and yet maintaining a homely feel. The set is simple, yet transforms neatly into a living room, changing room, hospital ward and The Albert Hall (tho you may have to use yr imagination a bit for that!). The opposing rows of terraced house front-doors reminded me of the houses in Edward Scissorhands.

The fear I had that the early season staging of such a crowd-pleaser may result in a show being pitched too squarely at mass appeal was unjustified; the humour was brought out well without being too 'loud' yet the sufferings, despair & sacrifices are always present – the latter in no small way down to the performances of Danny the band leader (Eric Potts) & Sandra (Emma Gregory), the mother of 4 – who really do give genuine feeling to their dialogue.

The rest of the cast support well and then there's the…22 piece brass band!! As well as providing some great tunes they add total authenticity to the band practice scenes as well as giving the production a living vibrancy.

I rated the show a soft 4/5 as I was initially undedcided and flitted between 3.5 & 4! In the end I plumped for the 4 as there's a certain enjoyment to be had (or not!) depending on your own personal recollections of events and whether the play reawakens those latent memories.

Excluding Aladdin at Xmas, The Coliseum is producing 2 other shows in this season – both look interesting too…