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Mark Thomas - Red Shed
Review
Review by Jo
Forrest.
TO describe Mark Thomas as a comic
would be doing him a disservice. Capable of more than just stringing together an
hour of loosely connected jokes, Thomas is a storyteller and captivating one at
that as he proved to a packed house at the Everyman Theatre, in Liverpool, on
Saturday, 17 September 2016.
Funny, thought provoking, controversial and hard hitting, his latest show, The
Red Shed, sees Thomas take the audience back to the miners' strike of the 1980's
and 1 of his local haunts, a Labour Club in Yorkshire called The Red Shed. Even
over 30 years later the Miners Strike is an emotional subject and it's 1
Thomas', having lived through, tackles superbly with a series of stories, some
of which he admits are true, some of which are 'truest' as he takes a trip back
to the scene of his involvement to try and track down the children who play a
big part of the memories he has of that era. Along the way he peppers the tale
with stories of his political experiences, his friendships and his introduction
to The Red Shed. A politically charged show, Thomas' passion and emotion shines
through for the entire 75 minutes he is on stage and, while the subject matter
at times might be 'added to', it's hard not to see that the man is
speaking from the heart.
Of course, the Labour Party's supporting bias of the subject matter only works
on an audience who share similar political leanings to Thomas, so he has no
problems winning over the Liverpool crowd tonight. However, after an hour or so
of jokes, stories and memories, Thomas breaks into an outburst about Michael
Gove, he looks close to tears, you can hear a pin drop around the theatre and
the show ends with Thomas getting an entirely deserved standing ovation from a
thoroughly entertained audience. |
