Review: This Is My Family at the Sheffield Crucible

Yesterday evening I went on a trip to the theatre in honour of a visiting family member. Having only found out the evening before that he was coming, and knowing that This Is My Family had gotten such good reviews, I rushed to the box office, and ended up buying the last three tickets. The show was taking place in the Crucible Studio (as oppose to the main stage), a much smaller venue, but with better sight lines all round, although there is the added danger of over-enthusiastic thespians spitting on you. There's also the fact you can't book seats, meaning you end up with the hassle of having to queue before hand to get good seats (top tip: arrive at least half an hour before show starts). Still, I'm a naturally hardy person and have dealt with this system many times before so this did not deter me from my aim of thoroughly enjoying the evenings entertainment.
Now, this is what I knew before hand from advertisements:  This Is My Family is a Musical comedy following a thirteen year old girl as she tries to plan a holiday which she hopes will help stop her family breaking apart. Sounds perfectly family friendly. Tell that to the woman who brought about five ten year olds, and then went beetroot when a number which can only be called 'The sex song' was sung. Although using metaphors and similes, it was undeniably graphic. Although not loads, there was some crude humour, which contradicted the marketing of the play. This probably should have been made clear in the advertising, and although not a problem for me, I felt considerable pity for the parents who brought their children. Parents on their own on the other hand would probably enjoy the show; even I, a teenager myself, could laugh at the blatant stereotyping of the age group. Their play did try to live up to being a 'comedy', we got a few giggles, but no big belly laughs. The comedy seemed more incidental than part of the genre of the play, and became laboured in the first half of the play as we got told to same information over and over again. Luckily the second half was much faster and interesting, and the satire more poignant.

Now I'm a fan of musicals in generally. I'm not one of those people who turn their nose up at a good bit of singing. But unfortunately I felt the songs didn't really add anything to the play. Even worse, they seemed to be an excuse for dialogue which, I have to say, wasn't great. The orchestra was a strange makeup, consisting of a full drum set, a leading keyboard, a cello, a double bass, and then an accordion. It wasn't too bad, but a bit disconcerting. Having said this, there were two numbers which I felt were done rather well. I was transfixed by Yvonne (Clare Burt) singing about her fear of growing old, something which most people in the audience I bet could relate to. There was also Sian Phillips, who played a Grandmother losing her mind to Alzheimer's, singing a beautiful church Hymn, which throughout became more and more confused. It seems that Tom Firth can really write vulnerable, touching women at least.

It may seem so far that I hated This Is My Family. That is not the case. Mostly the acting was brilliant, especially Clare Burt as the Mother figure, and Evelyn Hoskins as the teenage protagonist. Only Rachel Lumberg let the side down, seeming to only play a cliché as the lively and large fun Aunt. She simply became dull and two dimensional, to the point where I began to feel the play would have been better without her character at all. The teenage son, played by Terence Keeley was unfortunately written as a complete stereotype, and although he managed to pull the role off well considering, Firth's and the director Daniel Evan's general ignorance of teenage culture was highlighted at points, mainly by the unfortunate pronunciation of 'lol' as 'L. O. L.'.
Rounding off, unlikely as this seems, I would recommend a watch. It's on until the 20th of July, and tickets are £15. The acting is mostly superb and manages to bring life to the dialogue. The set is certainly impressive, and the play, despite the trite, schmaltzy ending (oops, hope I haven't given anything away), is enjoyable. Just don't take your kids to see it, this is defiantly one for the parents.
P.S. I have realised my choice of proof reader, my sister, was a bad one. Most would realise that taking the advice of a dyslexic on spelling and grammar is not the best choice, but it seems I'm a bit slow. So I've gone through some old posts to make some changes, if you would care to take a peek.