Poles Apart at The Lowry Manchester Review
Poles Apart
The Lowry, Manchester
21-24 October 2015
Reviewed by Linzi Davies
We arrived at The Lowry in Salford Quays, Manchester and collected our tickets with just minutes to spare after awful traffic on the way. We grabbed a quick drink and took our seats in Row K of the stalls, seat s13/14.The theatre was not particularly busy and most of the row in front of us was empty giving us a clear view of the stage.
The stage was empty except for a desk and chair, a few other props, a large scaffolding tower and a ghetto blaster blaring out the latest tunes. The story in a nutshell was set inside a theatre which was due to put on an opening night production of “The Other Woman.” A show starring the very famous Abbi Shaw, (‘er who was once ont t’ele). Phil’s scaffolding company obviously hadn’t read the script and decided to turn up rather inconveniently and build the tower in order to fix a leak in the roof, a job which they should have carried out three weeks earlier.
The story focuses around the three labourers inability to carry out simple tasks without first needing several cups of tea, orange juice, kitkats, lunch breaks oh and more tea. The title implies the general gist of the play which is that the working class and the theatre going public are at opposite poles of the universe and should pretty much be kept that way. The company owner Phil is always chasing a quick buck and if often no more than a foul mouthed disrespectful sexist bully who certainly wouldn’t be top of my Christmas card list! Jan, the Pole, by nationality, is played well although his pole dancing and physical attraction to females far and wide is not quite as endearing. My favourite character was Fat Pete, a rotund chap who talks fondly of his identical twin brother Glynn whilst debating whether it was cat food he put in his morning sandwiches. He cleverly delivers his lines with both charm and wit and has the likeability the show was crying out for. Abbi who made a couple of brief appearances, including the end few scenes wearing basque and suspenders (not entirely sure why) was bland and really without purpose, her distaste of the working class was ill received by the labourers but not much better by the audience. Graham the theatre’s Executive Director was pleasant throughout although near the end his hissy fits were becoming mildly annoying.
The story was pretty non-existent, just every day chit chat between lads on a building site, the joke were slow, repetitive and the language was often choice whilst not really relevant. In some ways it appeared to be trying to be goading a reaction from the audience, which it certainly got when talking of a friend who had fallen from the scaffolding and ended up in a wheelchair. This is the sanitised version and Phil’s rant did actually result in a couple of audience members leaving, I’m all for a bit of crass humour now and again but using terminology which was basically outlawed many years ago left a bitter taste in the mouth.
There’s not much more that can be said about the production as at the end I did find myself asking the question, “what the heck was that all about” a disappointing script, not exactly inspired acting and jokes which were either totally outdated or totally inappropriate. A mere polite chuckle raised at best.
Rating: 2/5
Tickets cost from £19 to £21 (includes £2 booking fee).
Poles Apart is at The Lowry in Manchester until 24 October 2015. For more information or to book tickets click here or call the box office on 0843 208 6000.
The Lowry, Pier 8, Salford Quays, Manchester, M50 3AZ | 0843 208 6000
