More than three decades after one of Britain’s longest and bitterest industrial disputes, Wolverhampton Grand is set to revisit the aftermath of the UK’s coalmine closures in a new production of Brassed Off.
Featuring Black Country legend Jeffrey Holland, a 67-strong community cast and a live local brass band, this hotly anticipated show will be the first to be produced in-house at the Grand in 40 years. We spoke to Chief Executive Adrian Jackson to find out more.
“I’d actually done the play before,” Jackson explains, “and I knew from then that it’s a great show to do with the community, which is something I wanted to replicate here. Also, it’s a very musical play, so it will hopefully be very popular and accessible for audiences.”
Outside his work managing major theatres (he previously led the Lichfield Garrick), Jackson is also a respected instrumentalist and conductor, making Brassed Off the perfect show for him to kickstart big plans to revive in-house production. Based on the film of the same name and set in the fictional Yorkshire town of Grimley, the show follows the local colliery band’s passionate conductor, Danny Ormondroyd (Jeffrey Holland), as he fights to keep his bandmates motivated and lead them to the National Finals. Meanwhile, Gloria Mullins (Clara Darcy) is sent back to her old hometown by British Coal to assess the profitability of its pit. Concealing from the miners her true purpose for returning, she ends up getting in deeper than she’s bargained for, and finds herself playing flugelhorn with the band. Music featured in the show includes the William Tell Overture, Death And Glory, Danny Boy, Land Of Hope And Glory and Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez.
“The band is mostly made up of the City of Wolverhampton Brass Band, so they’re the core of it, but we’ve recruited other musicians as well. We wanted it to be a really big band with a massive sound. For the key cast members, we were specifically looking for actor-musicians, because it’s really important for a character like Gloria, say, that she can play her instrument really well. But actually, a lot of our other cast members have decided to start learning brass instruments as we’ve gone along, which is great!”
Although the show is set in Yorkshire and inspired by the real-life town of Grimethorpe, many of the cast members will have their own experiences to draw on. It might be less famous than those of Wales and the North East, but the Midlands did once boast its own strong mining tradition.
“People tend to think of mining as being in the north, but there were quite a lot of mining areas around the Black Country and the wider Midlands. A lot of the cast have families who were directly involved in the strikes and the industry, so it’s something that’s still very present for them. Although we haven’t explicitly relocated the story, the playwright, Paul Allen, has been working with us directly, so there may be some tweaks here and there.”
Virtually everyone who auditioned to be in the community cast now has a part in the final show. In today’s internet-driven, compartmentalised world, it can often feel as though we’ve lost a sense of shared history, experience and solidarity in our communities, so there’s something inspiring about a project that consciously works to bring together very different kinds of people from the same geographical area. That said, Jackson believes that same community spirit which once characterised industrial towns is still there to be unearthed when it’s most needed.
“I think that whenever there’s a crisis, communities tend to rally together. People might not work in the same ways now, but we’ve seen with recent events in London and Manchester how hardship brings people together, so I think this story will really resonate emotionally with people.”
For Jackson, the local theatre is something that should be at the heart of any community. Since taking up the Chief Executive role in 2015, he’s been working hard to make the Grand a place that feels open and welcoming to everyone, with structural changes designed to accommodate more visitors and different kinds of performances, as well as diversifying the main stage programme.
Developing work in-house is just one of his ambitious goals, and Brassed Off particularly feels like a statement of intent, combining local input with quality drama and professional talent.
“The Grand has a really strong tradition of producing shows in-house, if you go back to the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s. But after the closure and reopening in the ’80s, at some point a decision was obviously made that this was no longer going to be a producing venue, and that it would only be receiving touring shows.
“Since I took over here, I’ve been looking to change that, and I think it’s brilliant that we’re now doing it. We have more projects lined up already, some of which will be community-based and some professional, so hopefully it will just continue to expand and grow.”
Brassed Off runs at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre from Wed 23 August to Sun 3 September.
More than three decades after one of Britain’s longest and bitterest industrial disputes, Wolverhampton Grand is set to revisit the aftermath of the UK’s coalmine closures in a new production of Brassed Off.
Featuring Black Country legend Jeffrey Holland, a 67-strong community cast and a live local brass band, this hotly anticipated show will be the first to be produced in-house at the Grand in 40 years. We spoke to Chief Executive Adrian Jackson to find out more.
“I’d actually done the play before,” Jackson explains, “and I knew from then that it’s a great show to do with the community, which is something I wanted to replicate here. Also, it’s a very musical play, so it will hopefully be very popular and accessible for audiences.”
Outside his work managing major theatres (he previously led the Lichfield Garrick), Jackson is also a respected instrumentalist and conductor, making Brassed Off the perfect show for him to kickstart big plans to revive in-house production. Based on the film of the same name and set in the fictional Yorkshire town of Grimley, the show follows the local colliery band’s passionate conductor, Danny Ormondroyd (Jeffrey Holland), as he fights to keep his bandmates motivated and lead them to the National Finals. Meanwhile, Gloria Mullins (Clara Darcy) is sent back to her old hometown by British Coal to assess the profitability of its pit. Concealing from the miners her true purpose for returning, she ends up getting in deeper than she’s bargained for, and finds herself playing flugelhorn with the band. Music featured in the show includes the William Tell Overture, Death And Glory, Danny Boy, Land Of Hope And Glory and Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez.
“The band is mostly made up of the City of Wolverhampton Brass Band, so they’re the core of it, but we’ve recruited other musicians as well. We wanted it to be a really big band with a massive sound. For the key cast members, we were specifically looking for actor-musicians, because it’s really important for a character like Gloria, say, that she can play her instrument really well. But actually, a lot of our other cast members have decided to start learning brass instruments as we’ve gone along, which is great!”
Although the show is set in Yorkshire and inspired by the real-life town of Grimethorpe, many of the cast members will have their own experiences to draw on. It might be less famous than those of Wales and the North East, but the Midlands did once boast its own strong mining tradition.
“People tend to think of mining as being in the north, but there were quite a lot of mining areas around the Black Country and the wider Midlands. A lot of the cast have families who were directly involved in the strikes and the industry, so it’s something that’s still very present for them. Although we haven’t explicitly relocated the story, the playwright, Paul Allen, has been working with us directly, so there may be some tweaks here and there.”
Virtually everyone who auditioned to be in the community cast now has a part in the final show. In today’s internet-driven, compartmentalised world, it can often feel as though we’ve lost a sense of shared history, experience and solidarity in our communities, so there’s something inspiring about a project that consciously works to bring together very different kinds of people from the same geographical area. That said, Jackson believes that same community spirit which once characterised industrial towns is still there to be unearthed when it’s most needed.
“I think that whenever there’s a crisis, communities tend to rally together. People might not work in the same ways now, but we’ve seen with recent events in London and Manchester how hardship brings people together, so I think this story will really resonate emotionally with people.”
For Jackson, the local theatre is something that should be at the heart of any community. Since taking up the Chief Executive role in 2015, he’s been working hard to make the Grand a place that feels open and welcoming to everyone, with structural changes designed to accommodate more visitors and different kinds of performances, as well as diversifying the main stage programme.
Developing work in-house is just one of his ambitious goals, and Brassed Off particularly feels like a statement of intent, combining local input with quality drama and professional talent.
“The Grand has a really strong tradition of producing shows in-house, if you go back to the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s. But after the closure and reopening in the ’80s, at some point a decision was obviously made that this was no longer going to be a producing venue, and that it would only be receiving touring shows.
“Since I took over here, I’ve been looking to change that, and I think it’s brilliant that we’re now doing it. We have more projects lined up already, some of which will be community-based and some professional, so hopefully it will just continue to expand and grow.”
Brassed Off runs at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre from Wed 23 August to Sun 3 September.