Review: The Steamie – The People’s Theatre, Newcastle
The People’s Theatre’s production of Tony Roper’s The Steamie is by turns comedic and poignant in its portrayal of a Hogmanay afternoon in a Glasgow washhouse, as four neighbours meet to swap gossip, tell stories, laugh and joke, listen to each others’ woes, and of course do their families’ laundry.
The play is set in the 1950s, and the turn of the year sees the women in a reflective mood, as they recollect past summers and winters of drudgery over the washing, and contemplate the advent of new-fangled laundrettes and gadgetry like the phone and television, wondering what impact these changes will have on their lives.
Despite this somewhat emotional backdrop for the action, The Steamie is a play full of comic moments and funny sketches. Anna Dobson as the fun-loving Dolly shows a talent for physical comedy, when she demonstrates the benefits of her bowlegged physic by persuading one of the other girls to join her in a tango, which she follows up with some hilarious antics when she decides to take a forbidden bath in the laundry sink while her friends shield her modesty with a sheet.
Jessica Hannah plays Doreen, the youngest of the women, who daydreams of a future life in a country house surrounded by luxury. Meanwhile Maggie Watson’s elderly Mrs Culfeathers looks back nostalgically at the times before her sons moved away to England to find work, in between tying her listeners in knots and throwing the audience into fits of laughter with her ludicrously mundane stories about where she buys the mince and tatties for her husband’s tea. Sarah McLane plays Magrit, a maternal figure who plays along with her friends and keeps the gossip and the laughter flowing, and her sparring exchanges with Keith Henderson as the increasingly tipsy maintenance man Andy are a particular highlight.
The action is peppered by impromptu musical numbers, when a chorus of fantastic singers and dancers join the main cast on the stage. These pieces are entertaining, but possibly feel a bit out of place with the rest of the action. The actors (and audience) struggle a little with the thick Glaswegian accents that the play’s setting demand, but the emotions and the light-hearted mood of preparing for Hogmanay come through vividly all the same.
The play culminates with the unexpected appearance of a piper who joins the cast in a rendition of “Auld Lang Syne”, an appropriate climax for a story that takes us through the highs and lows that new year’s eve traditionally brings to the fore.
The Steamie runs at The People’s Theatre, Heaton, until 5 April 2014. Tickets are available on the door, from the theatre’s website, or by calling 0191 265 5020.
