Bill Bray writes...

Have you ever been asked to go with your fellow workers on a bonding exercise? This was popular several years ago as a psychological exercise to improve work place relationships and playwright Tim Firth decided it was a suitable subject for a play, ‘Neville’s Island’ has been done both on  TV and stage including at the GWT where it delighted our audience.

Firth’s plays usually have surprising subjects and have included ‘Calendar Girls’, about the Women’s Institute foray into the nude calendar market and our next production ‘The Flint Street Nativity’, which deals with the annual ritual in Primary schools of the Mary/Jesus/ox and ass/kings and shepherds display with the background parental tensions involved. The children however are not played by child actors but by adults who are more able to point the humour which erupts from these exercises. I’m sure that many of the events will have a familiar ring but, with distance the frightful happenings will appear comic rather than upsetting! Tim has an interest in songwriting and he teamed with fellow playwright Willy Russell (of Blood Brothers fame) for a solo album, Harmless Flirting, which won wonderful reviews when performed live at the Edinburgh Festival several years ago.

During two successive Christmas runs, the stage version of ‘The Flint Street Nativity’ at the Liverpool Playhouse became the most successful production in the theatre's history, breaking box office records. There are plenty of people in the GWT audience who have experience of this school phenomenon to ensure that ticket demand will equal that of Liverpool so make sure of your tickets for this show.

ROSS  HOLLAND, director, introduces the play

Like most of us, Tim Firth's first experience of being on stage was in his  school nativity play. He wanted to play Joseph so that he could hold hands with Mary, who was his best friend’s girlfriend, but he lost out. During the school holidays he wrote his first play, so he could be a prince and the girl who played Mary would be the princess and his best friend would be the back end of the dragon.

In The Flint Street Nativity, you can see he has never managed to get over this experience! It features all the fluffed lines, missed entrances and cardboard props you would expect but also the machinations of the little darlings as they scheme to get the best place, so they can be seen.

All that can go wrong does go wrong. The play has to be done in a classroom as the builders have had to stop work on the new school hall because they have found great crested newts on the site. The donkey has a hidden secret; Gabriel is determined to play Mary; the Innkeeper is madly in love with Mary; the Star has an uncle who works for NASA and so is not satisfied with the Star of Bethlehem and decides to bring it up to date; the King who gives Frankincense has a lisp, and friendships are made and broken in minutes.

Our cast, who have each been getting in touch with the inner child, features some well known Whitworth favourites. Keith Dunn (last seen in The Merry Wives of Windsor) plays both the Star and the Ass, Lee Devlin (Dupont-Dufort Snr in Thieves' Carnival) is the Narrator, who has learnt his lines especially well because his dad is coming, Vivien Goodwin (Joan in Time And The Conways), Susie Hall (Alma in Summer and Smoke), Richard Tame (Antony Henderson in Bell, Book and Candle) and David Webster (Rev Parris in The Crucible). We also have welcome returns for a few relative newcomers - Tracy Higley (Miss Pink in After September), Sarah Hills (Miss Kershaw in After September) and Dave Kerry (Mr. Eichelberger in Promises, Promises). We also have our debutant in an acting role, Karen Friett.

There are moments where you may wet yourself laughing. But it's your own fault for not seeing to it before you came out. So make sure you book your tickets, wrap up warm before you come and please park sensibly in the playground. Your children will be returned to you once the performance is over.