Chip Shop Chips by Box of Tricks at the R&G Club Huddersfield Review
Chip Shop Chips
by Box of Tricks
R&G Club, Huddersfield
29 February 2016
Reviewed by Jenny Bray
This is a two layered love story, with a few differences, celebrating our nation’s love of fish and chips (which have been part of our history since 1860!) and included a fish and chip dinner within the price.
The venue for this play was the Red and Green Club in Milnsbridge, Huddersfield. This isn’t a theatre but is a social club with a room that they do events in. For a social club with a bar they put on a variety of diverse events in the room the play was in, from plays to cinema nights, open mic events to storytelling and poetry.
The venue was relatively easy to find, although my satnav failed me a few roads from the venue and by the time it caught up I had to do some very strange manoeuvres round back roads in order to get back on track. There is parking for around 10 vehicles alongside the venue. These were full by the time I arrived but there is also free on street parking along the road the venue is on.
When I arrived I entered through the main door and was then a little confused as to which door I needed to go through in order to get to where the play was being held as it wasn’t obvious at first from the door choices! Once through the correct door I entered the bar area and was greeted in a friendly manner and advised to take the appropriate napkin (white to indicate that I’d ordered fish and chips and not a vegetarian option) and a little fish and chip shop wooden fork.
The room the play was in was set out like a fish and chip shop restaurant with a counter set along the rear wall and a raised set in the middle of the room, with tables and chairs for all the audience set out around it. Tables varied from small tables for 2 or 3 people to larger ones holding around 6. They were covered with red and white tablecloths and had salt, vinegar, ketchup, an answer sheet, a postcard comments card and a pencil on!
This was a truly interactive experience. The cast had their own story and lines but these were interspersed by quiz questions to us as the audience and also a hat making session (with newspaper and sellotape!). The show started just after 7, after everyone had been served their food, there was a 15 minute break at 8 and it ended at 9. However, because of the interaction and the food it felt a lot shorter to me.
As part of the audience, I was one of the full house of the reopening night of Booth and Son’s fish and chip shop by Eric (Russell Richardson). Eric had returned from running a bar abroad for 40 years to run the family owned shop as his father died recently. He has revamped it with music, an alcohol licence, quiz, hat making competition and favourite fish and chip related memories.
Eric has taken on a young lad called Lee (Ben-Ryan Davies) and brought him to work ‘front of house’ serving guests. Eric is both serving and being quizmaster throughout. Christine (Julie Edwards) and Jasmine (Jessica Forrest) play grandmother and granddaughter and turn up late there for some food. We discover that Christine and Eric were lovers when they were both 17, which was over 40 years ago. Jasmine and Lee went to school together until fairly recently. Christine speaks her thoughts aloud during the first part of the show. After adding a few sneaky and illicit vodkas to their dandelion and burdocks she starts speaking these to others later on.
The storyline is about a missed love between Eric and Christine. She had more money growing up and went off to university without him. She then ended up marrying at 23, having a daughter by 24 and then being widowed shortly before the time when the show is set (when in her 60s). Eric never settled or had children with anyone and breaking up with Christine broke his heart. He is initially quite bitter and resentful towards her.
As the play continues (after half the quiz, then making hats out of newspaper) there is an issue with the kitchen and the promised bread and butter pudding fails to materialise as the chef has been incapable (or should that be too inebriated) to get it together to make it properly. This prompts Eric to breakdown which leads to both Eric and Christine and also Lee and Jasmine to have further one on one conversations and interaction.
The storyline is very plausible and the fact that it is acted out amongst the audience makes it more realistic. It touches on the sadness of nursing a loved one through cancer, then being lonely on your own and reminiscing about the past. The second storyline between Jasmine and Lee initially covers the false bravado of a brash teenage girl wanting everyone to fancy her. The storyline of their past covers her desperation in school doing what she thinks she needs to in order to be liked then the boy helping her out at a time when no-one else would. It also covers some of his background growing up missing school due to helping his alcoholic mother out. He is grateful to have been given the opportunity to work in the fish and chip shop having struggled to find a job due to his background.
This play only had a cast of four but they all acted brilliantly and played their parts really well throughout what I would imagine to be quite a distracting background. Russell Richardson (who played Eric) kept the audience interacting enough to keep the flow going but also behaving enough to keep the play on track.
The venue and setting was intimate as there were less than 40 in the audience. I enjoyed both this aspect and the actual closeness of the characters while acting. The interaction with the quiz questions interspersed throughout and the hat making session were fun although on occasion they did distract from the actors. There are plenty of fishy puns throughout, some of which will make you laugh and others will make you groan but also smile. All in all I really enjoyed this production. It was also great value for money as the fish and chip dinner was included in the price (although mine was very greasy at this venue, but that aspect will change at each venue). It’s currently touring small venues around the north and I recommend it to anyone that likes something a little different. If you research some fish and chip related facts you may even win the quiz while there.
Rating: 5/5 
Chip Shop Chips is currently on tour until 23 March 2016. For more information, tour dates and to book tickets visit www.boxoftrickstheatre.co.uk/production/chip-shop-chips.
For other events at the R&G Club visit www.facebook.com/redandgreenmilnsbridge.
Red & Green Club, 42 Bankwell Road, Milnsbridge, Huddersfield, HD3 4LU
