Having previously run at The Space under a different title, Nick Dawkin’s A Manchester Anthem comes to VAULT Festival, using House Music as the background to a superbly crafted monologue that deals with class, inequalities, and coming of age.
Tommy is your typical working-class lad from Manchester, we meet him on his final day as a waiter in a high-end coffee shop, a scholarship has given him an education that his peers were deprived of, but now he’s leaving Manchester to take up a place at Oxford University. His posh school friends are perhaps as surprised as Tommy that he will be joining them on the next leg of their academic journey, so invite him to one final Saturday night out in Manchester.
Like Tommy himself, we never really know what to expect next. Dawkins has written a play that is neither obvious nor convoluted, and instead focusses on a few key issues and deals with them well. The result is that we identify with Tommy almost immediately, sharing his hopes, and disappointments, with him in real time.
The aspect of class is brutally addressed in one particular scene, where Tommy’s future literally hangs on how much change he has in his pocket. It’s beautifully written, as the audience ache with the same anger and embarrassment as Tommy does.
Tom Claxton, who worked closely with Dawkins on the script, is a force to be reckoned with. Switching from high energy to downtrodden in a heartbeat, his highly expressive performance is gripping, particularly in the way he engages with his audience, making it very easy for us to empathise with the character.
Where Claxton really excels is in the various characters he portrays around Tommy; his family, the friends he’ll leave behind, and the potential friends of his future. Each of these are imbued with their own personality, mannerisms, and tone of voice that captivates the audience.
There have been some changes since the original run, and Tommy now feels more rounded, and how his past affects his present and future is more clearly defined. It also feels funnier in the more comedic scenes, with considered pauses that take us between the light and shade.
Director, Charlie Norburn, delicately balances the spirited scenes with the more serious. It allows the themes of class difference and Northern identity to get the attention they deserve. The staging may be simple, but it’s effective in bringing the city of Manchester into vivid focus.
A Manchester Anthem, a rallying call in itself, leaves its audience wanting more. All of the characters that exist in this one drunken night out, feel like their filled with potential. It could easily be expanded out to a full-length play or even transfer to the small screen; a Mancunian Skins for the roaring twenties.
Even in its current form, A Manchester Anthem is an authentic piece of writing that rings true at every level, and just like your urge to dance when the beat begins, this is new writing that’s impossible to resist.
VAULT Festival 2023 runs Tuesday 24th January to Sunday 19th March, full listings and ticket information can be found here.
