REVIEW: Sides, by Alex Joynes, People's Theatre, Newcastle
People's Play Award winner proves wholesome fare
A play writing competition with an actual production as part of the prize is worth its weight in gold, especially in these tricky times for theatre. Alex Joynes, this year’s People’s Play Award winner, has duly served up a sparkler.
And it comes, should you wish, with bacon (substitute tuna at your peril), lettuce, tomatoes and lashings of whatever mayonnaise-based dressing takes your fancy – as long as it’s on the menu (strictly calibrated by head office) of Uncle Del’s diner.
This is the setting for the Lancashire playwright’s sweetly humorous study of… ooh, quite a lot of things, actually: loyalty, friendship, work, sexual orientation, sandwiches and, obliquely, the nightlife of Bolton (better than Bury’s, not up to Manchester’s, apparently).
Two of the three characters are on set as we take our seats, Hattie Eason’s chirpy Deliveroo operative, Beth, and John MacDonald’s Terry, on the verge of retirement after 26 years of serving sarnies and related delicacies to discerning customers.
They chat and banter over a crossword, Terry, dry as a toasted panini, full of the kind of worldly wisdom you must imbibe from long association with a chain takeaway but not so hot on 21st Century pop icons.
Sandwich constructed, Beth pops off to make a customer happy and in comes Charlie (Rhiannon Wilson), sort of looking for work but a little too independent-minded for the tick-box interview to which Terry is about to subject her.
This pair would seem to be on opposite sides of a divide, whether it be generational or attitudinal. With Beth, though, Charlie strikes up an almost instant rapport.
You warm to the characters as they warm to each other in more or less grudging fashion, and the process is aided by excellent performances from an experienced cast.
Acting while balancing meatballs on a bread roll would not be my idea of a picnic but the procedure is carried out as if to the manner born, and full marks to all of them for remembering the invisible (and occasionally malfunctioning) sliding door that separates Uncle Del’s from the outside world.
And all this before you consider the accents which to my ear sounded pretty OK. Can director Ian Willis have had them studying Paddy McGuinness YouTube videos?
Alex Joynes is clearly a worthy winner of the biennial People’s competition, inaugurated 30 years ago, and successor to others who have gone on to greater things, not least Peter Straughan, Oscar-winning screenwriter of hit film Conclave.
He has an ear for dialogue and a finely attuned sense of the absurd, evident in his portrayal of Uncle Del’s and its corporate four founding principles, the latter concerning diversity and inclusivity clearly tagged on as an afterthought.
The story that unfolds is a touching one and Rhiannon Wilson’s musical talents are deployed to bring a lump to the throat in the closing moments.
Good set, too, so full marks to Anneliese Clifton. Must get that door fixed, though!
Sides is on in the People’s Theatre Studio until Saturday, May 10. Tickets from the People’s Theatre website.