Saturday Night & Sunday Morning (tour)

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, a stalwart of the “angry young man” genre, is given a refreshing new interpretation, appropriately enough, by the New Perspectives Theatre Company.

While best known as the film starring Albert Finney, Alan Sillitoe’s novel is the original source, and playwright Amanda Whittington has gone back to the book for this new production. In doing so, she has managed to produce a play that is very much of the period while still having contemporary relevance.

Arthur Seaton is 21 years old and installed in a job for life in the Raleigh factory in 1950s Nottingham. It is tediously repetitive, but he has it down to a fine art, able to daydream while earning more than the union would like him to get. He looks forward to losing himself on Saturday nights in alcohol, and if he’s lucky, in the arms of a woman – preferably, his workmate’s wife, Brenda. A decade before the pill, the inevitable happens, and the naïve Arthur has to have the consequences of the pregnancy spelt out by Brenda – a lifelong commitment to another human being.

The women are the bedrock of this society – they are just as frustrated as Arthur, in the strait-jacket of Fifties convention, but have to be more pragmatic, dependent on men like Arthur financially and even for status.

The production’s simple set is dominated by a large Japanese-style screen, which is ingeniously reshaped to form interiors of homes and pubs – including snug – and even a helter-skelter, while the lighting design reflects the change of times and moods effectively. Props are used inventively, and the large tin bath is a stark reminder of how new proper bathrooms actually are.

Peter McCamley is on stage throughout as Jack-the-lad Arthur: occasionally loveable, frequently infuriating, usually charming, his appeal to these women is obvious. He has moments of alcohol-fuelled unfocussed anger, but he is more frustrated with his life – intelligent enough to see that he is barely more than a drone but with no real means to escape his destiny.

The five other cast members juggle the supporting roles of workmates, rivals, confidants and crumpet. Charlie Buckland as the cuckolded Jack is poignant, Nicky Rafferty’s Brenda pays a heavy price physically and emotionally, and Abigail Fisher convincingly pulls off playing both the weary Aunt Ada and the sexy, sparky Winnie.

– Annette Neary