Review of June Evening

The Cast of June Evening

Taken from the Bolton News, Saturday 12th June 2010

THE passing of time really proves the worth and relevance of a piece of writing and Bill Naughton's comparatively little-known June Evening passes with flying colours.

Staged as part of the theatre’s Bill Naughton Centenary Season, and running alongside his All In Good Time, this really is an enjoyable piece ofwork.

It is easy to understand why this play has been described as “the forerunner to Coronation Street”, created, as it was, as a radio play starring Violet Carson, Harry Markham and Jack Howarth, and set in Bolton's Holdsworth Street, where it puts the microscope on post-war relationships and family life.

Director Andrew Close cleverly leaves the space afforded by the Forge Theatre as spartan as possible, leaving the characters to move freely around their houses.

The play centres largely around the Kippax,Harwood and Sedwin families and, with a little imagination, their predicaments could be those of any family in today's economically difficult times.

Albert and Beatty Kippax, brilliantly played by Kev Walsh and Alison Whittaker, are having difficulties living in cramped conditions with a baby and Albert's mother Sarah, the fantastic Doreen Barker, who really could be an old character from The Street.

Pregnant Polly Harwood (Ruth Morley) is struggling to be civil to her mother and convincingly dopey husband Jack (Chris Simpson), while Frances Clemmitt and Martin Miller win the day as Harry Sedwin proves he can still woo wife Liz in an emotional scene.

The dialogue is moving and witty, and the acting always top-notch. Bill Naughton would have loved it.

by Andrew Mosely of The Bolton News

Vetting and Barring Scheme.

LTG PRESS RELEASE, 16th June 2010

The Little Theatre Guild (LTG) welcomes the government announcement, made on 15 June, that the Vetting and Barring scheme has been halted, so that the coalition government can review and remodel the scheme. The LTG has been a critic of the scheme because it has lead to member theatres ceasing to use children in their productions.

The LTG has a long history of youth groups and working with children in their productions, but the Vetting and Barring scheme was seen by some members as a step too far. LTG Chairman, Eddie Redfern, commented:

"The coalition government has recognised that for the voluntary sector the VBS is doing more harm than good and preventing youngsters following their ambitions either in sport or the performing arts because of the draconian measures placed upon volunteer organisations. We welcome the immediate halting of the VBS and look forward to a return to a sensible approach, where voluntary organisations will be able to encourage youngsters in their chosen hobby, without ludicrous and ill-thought-out policies. Our member theatres take the safety and security of youngsters taking part in Youth Workshop or productions seriously and have well established child protection procedures in place which was recognised by the Sarah Thane review that was published earlier this year." 

Sir lan McKellen writes:

“Many thanks for the timely press release. If common sense prevails, the Guild can be pleased with itself. All wishes from Australia, where I'm still waiting for Godot.” 

The Official Announcement 

The Vetting and Barring Scheme (due to start on 26 July) has been halted. This is to allow the government to remodel the scheme to what it calls 'common-sense levels'. However, the regulations that were introduced in October 2009 continue to apply.

The VBS aims to protect children and vulnerable adults by stopping those who pose a known risk from working with them. It was created following the 2002 Soham murders and was designed to help police and vetting organisations to share information.

However concerns had been raised that the scheme was becoming too much of a burden and infringed civil liberties. To allow the government to remodel the VBS to "common sense levels", registration with the scheme has now been halted.

Regulations that were introduced in October 2009 will remain in place. These include

• A person who is barred from working with children or vulnerable adults will be breaking the law if they work or volunteer, or try to work or volunteer with those groups. 
• An organisation which knowingly employs someone who is barred to work with those groups will also be breaking the law 
• If your organisation works with children or vulnerable adults and you dismiss a member of staff because they have harmed a child or vulnerable adult, or you would have done so if they had not left, you must tell the Independent Safeguarding Authority.

What are your views on the Vetting and Barring scheme and the impact such a scheme could have on amateur theatre productions? Let us know in the comments below.

Welcome

Hello and welcome to 'The Fourth Wall', the Bolton Little Theatre blog. You may be a lifelong member of the theatre, situated on Hannover Street in the friendly town of Bolton, or you may have stumbled upon this site purely by accident whilst browsing the internet for a new steam cleaner. Whatever brought you here we hope you will stay a while, browse the posts and maybe even join in. This blog is for everyone, not just those with an interest in Bolton Little Theatre but for anyone with an interest of theatre in general. You'll find news, reviews, thoughts and opinions on the many issues affecting amateur theatre locally and nationally and we will keep you up to date with the goings on behind the scenes here at BLT.

So thanks for visiting and we hope you enjoy. Feel free to comment on anything you want (but please make sure criticism is constructive, and of course bad language will not be tolerated... not that any of you lovely people would do so). If you want to shamelessly plug a blog or website or show in the comments, you can do that to. Hey who knows, maybe we'll get in touch and create a post just for your shameless plug if we think its relevant enough.

Oh and before we begin, one last thing to note...

"The views expressed by the authors on this website do not necessarily reflect the views of the Bolton Little Theatre (BLT) management, friends and family of the BLT management, the pets of the BLT management, the Little Theatre Guild (LTG), friends and family of the LTG or pets of the LTG. In fact there is a good chance some of the views expressed by the authors on this website wont necessarily reflect the views of the authors as some of them are pretty indecisive.

Any comments left on this website are the sole responsibility of their writers and if they happen to be complete nonsense or libelous then the writer of the comment takes all blame. Also if a commenter claims that they have found the secret to eternal life, have managed to invent time travel or have managed to cure hay-fever (or other such claims) then its your own fault if you believe them. Don't go dragging us into it.

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Okay dokey. Lets get on with the show.