Union Street - Oldham Coliseum - 12/10/07 by Jeni Pemberton

Union Street has been specially written for the Coliseum Theatre by talented local playwright Ian Kershaw winner of the North West prize at the Royal Exchange Bruntwood Playwriting Competition.

It's a bitter-sweet comedy about young love, broken dreams and the changing face of Oldham over the past 20 years. It is the story of Jo and her first love Sam who she met in 1987 as told to the landlord of The Pennine in a series of ‘flashbacks’.

I have to confess that the tag line “It’s Karaoke night in the heart of Oldham!” had me a little worried. I’m not a Karaoke fan and was concerned that for the sake of authenticity the audience might have to endure a lot of off- key singing. Happily my fears were completely unfounded.

There was an excited party atmosphere in the packed auditorium even before the curtain went up. Then the audience was sucked headlong into the play with thumping sound delivery & a photo show of Oldham, its people and its grotty bits!

Ian Kershaw’s script was brilliant. The dialogue was witty and sharp, his characters three dimensional and the story line a social commentary as well as one woman’s love story. Ian is a talent from whom we are going to hear an awful lot more, but surely nothing much better than this.

The small cast delivered his lines cleanly and crisply making the characters very real. Gemma Wardle (Jo ) was stunning in the lead role. There seemed to be no limit to her talents and energy. Paul Loughran (Jim) was very good as the landlord, playing his role with a nice mix of pathos and optimism. Phil Rowson (Ste) and Kyl Messios (Sam) also gave very strong performances .

It was as advertised a play about Oldham but outsiders soon picked up the key local references such as the fact that Sholver wasn’t a nice place to live in the 80s,that people from Delph were considered ‘posh’ . The stage sets were fantastic .The “Pennine” set was depressingly authentic and the very small litter strewn park that was Jo & Sam’s special place was both sad and romantic depending upon the lighting effects.

Fittingly the play ended in a crescendo of joyful singing whirling light sequences, bubbles and an unseasonal shower of snow. I enjoyed every minute of the performance, so if you can get tickets make sure you see it while you can...