Reasons to be Cheerful

Synopsis

It's 1979. Ian Dury and the Blockheads' new single Reasons to be Cheerful (part 3) is climbing the charts. Labour has just lost the recent election to the Tories. Vinnie and his mates are big Ian Dury fans and they are desperate to see him at the Hammersmith Odeon but the gig is sold out. Vinnie will do anything to get tickets, but life is complicated. His dad is dying; the girl he loves is going out with his boss at the supermarket, and his own band never stops fighting. But the opportunity to get tickets for the gig arises and events take a surprising turn. Set during a time of political change and economic hardship, Dury's songs provide a powerful political and emotional backdrop to this coming-of-age tale.

Our Review:

Anne Morley-Priestman - 16 February 2012

There’s a lot of it about at the moment. Popular music, that is, draped somewhat disjointedly – not to say discordantly – around a disconnected story. Take Reasons To be Cheerful by Paul Sirett with the music (mainly) of Ian Dury. This collaboration between Ipswich’s New Wolsey Theatre and Graeae was first staged in autumn 2010 and is now back with basically the same cast for a new tour.

Gaelle Mellis’ designs for Jenny Sealey’s production litter the stage with 1970s paraphernalia and adds in video, animation and surtitles to provide the words of the different numbers and mirror the dialogue (this doesn’t always synchronise perfectly). Graeae properly prides itself on playing to an inclusive audience using performers of whom some have a range of physical disabilities.

The principal actors are those of the original cast. Stephen Lloyd is Vinnie, the drop-out teenager coping rather badly with his father Bill ([Gar...

Read more of the review

Latest User Review

gina collazi - 28 April 2012:

Not enough innovation .artistic and choreographic output extremely poor.disappointed throughout.cover versions do better than this....

Read more and add your own review