Review: Waiting at Storyhouse Chester

Words: Angela Ferguson and Paul Crofts. Photos: Steve Cain

This much anticipated new play from the pen of Chester playwright Gail Young takes a look at the harrowing impact of World War Two on families in Liverpool.

Loosely based on Gail’s mum’s family in Liverpool, Waiting looks at the experiences of the Wright family as they navigate living and working through the horrors of war, including the brutal Liverpool Blitz, in which more than 4000 civilians were killed.

Gail said she first began writing Waiting some years back while on the Liverpool Everyman playwright programme. She said she revisited the script countless times but always put it aside to complete other work and stage other shows.

She freely admits it’s a tough subject to tackle and she wanted to do justice to it. Gail said that, in the end, the story of her mum’s family kept calling her back to Waiting.

And it’s one heck of a powerful story, with multiple facets taking the audience on a heartbreaking journey through the grim realities of living and working through a war. The central characters are waiting. They’re waiting for news of loved ones fighting on distant shores, for letters home from children evacuated to North Wales or for the air raid sirens to sound and the bombs to fall.

It’s a subject made all the more poignant by the wars still ravaging parts of the world today.

It’s clear from the level of historical detail included that this has been a labour of love for Gail, who conducted extensive research courtesy of the Liverpool archives. Newspaper clippings from the Liverpool Echo at that time are also used to good effect to help set the scene for the drama unfolding before us.

What Gail and the talented cast and crew, including director, Yvette Owen have produced is a poignant and powerful snapshot of this dark period in history.

Waiting was premiered at the Garret theatre at Storyhouse in Chester. It’s testament to the talents of Gail Young and the cast and crew that the run was quickly sold out, with the theatre packed out for every night of the run and the Saturday matinee.

The ravages of war were brought to the fore in front of us, as experienced through the eyes of the close-knit and strong Wright family, led by indomitable and feisty matriarch Amy Wright (Dawn Adams). As a hush descended on the theatre, we gasped and reached for the tissues as they faced horrors which no one should ever have to go through.

The cleverly designed set made use of the limited space in the Garret studio theatre as the action switched from the Wright family home to several locations including the docks, the horse fair, a pub and a Welsh chapel, although some of the set dressing could perhaps have been dispensed with in order to create a larger acting area. The period props really added to the overall look and feel of the production.

The younger cast members, Ethan Harrison, Savanna Bristoe and Cara Sconce as the three young Wright children played their parts well and drew praise from the audience.

Ally Goodman and Kat Tanczos put in powerful performances as husband and wife, Peter and Jessie Wright. The couple are battling to do what’s right for King and country and for their beloved family.

There’s a clear undercurrent of stoicism and indomitable strength and a good dose of that famous Scouse humour and warmth woven throughout this story. But there are no happy endings as far as war is concerned, with lives turned upside down and changed for ever more.

The integration of the specially filmed sequences and images projected on to a representation of the side of a large Tate and Lyle packing crate worked extremely well and helped to inform the locations of each scene and make the live action more impactful, the funeral scene was particularly moving, although the Tate and Lyle stencilling being constantly visible did detract from the visual impact of the otherwise excellent films.

Waiting presented the audience with an emotive production which was punctuated with just the right amount of humour. Dawn Adams, for example, as the war-widowed matriarch of the Wright family, portrayed the worry and anguish for her family as war loomed for the second time in her lifetime but also chided her grandchildren and disapproved of her youngest son’s Catholic fiancé to great comic effect.

Teresa Doherty (Felicity Parry) and David Wright (Dan Aynsley) lend another bittersweet dimension to this heartrending story, with war threatening to tear the couple apart.

The tragic and catastrophic family events portrayed in the play seemed to be dealt with somewhat quickly before the scenes moved on and it felt like the scenes dealing with the aftermath of the two deaths of much loved family members needed to be invested with more emotion. The pace of the play seemed a little slow in places but perhaps this was down to first night nerves.

Clever use was made of rousing and mournful songs from this era to lend a further heartrending layer of emotion to the production. The musicians and singers did a brilliant job of transporting us back in time through the powerful medium of song.

Gail Young is to be congratulated for scripting yet another hit and capturing the devastating effects that war has on families and whole communities. All the proceeds from Waiting are being donated to UNHCR, the United Nations charity which helps provide relief for refugees around the world, thousands of whom have been displaced as a result of conflict. As conflicts continue to rage around the world, we are reminded time and time again of the human cost of war.