Corrie! (Tour - Northampton)

You have to admire the courage of author Jonathan Harvey in trying to tell the story of Coronation Street in a two hour theatre show. At least, as one of the regular writers on the popular soap, he knows it inside out. However can you really tell that much story in that short a time? Given the confused looks on the faces of the other people in the audience, I fear that the answer is probably no.

There is no doubting the hard work and talent on the part of the small cast - Peter Temple, Daniel Crowder, Leanne Best, Simon Chadwick, Jo Mousley and Lucy Thackeray - they all play many, many roles and do so very well. The evening is narrated by Ken Morley and whilst he brings a lot of welcome humour to the stage, the moments where he narrates a lot of plot against a backdrop of choreographed movement by the rest of the cast are particularly baffling.

The costumes are, on the whole, pretty authentic and give a real sense of the characters. However some of the set pieces are more reminiscent of a school play - most noticeably in the Canal Car Crash with Gail and Richard Hillman.

I guess this is a fun night out for real devotees for the show, but as a piece of theatre, it didn't quite work for me. I left the auditorium confused as to why they bothered.

Jenni Smith