Flaccid Fantasy: 'Jubilee' at Royal Exchange

 by Brian Bamford

ALMOST nodded-off at this performance of the play Jubilee, directed by Chris Good  at the Royal Exchange.  In the end, I found myself delicately picking my nose with my the little finger of my left hand up my left nostril as a bit of light relief.

It seems that the run up to the staging of the play was more interesting than the play itself.  Days before the kick-off of the play, the lines which had been included that gave a favourable reference to the child murderesss Myra Hindley were removed owing to protests from the cast.

Toyah Willcox, who was in the film and is now in the play, said that using the lines in the city where Hindley and her partner Ian Brady operated, it would have 'undermined the whole play'.  The feeling was that had the words been uttered in the Manchester Royal Exchange it would have led to walkouts in the audience. 

It seems, Chris Goode, the director, initially resisted attempts to delete the reference but in the end admitted he had underestimated the strength of feeling her spectre still stirred, particularly in Manchester.

Hindley and Brady's crimes shook Manchester in the 1960s - when they tortured and killed five children between the ages of 10 and 17.

This play has its origins in the original film by.Derek Jarman’s Jubilee that divided opinion in 1978. Its harshest critics were the leaders of the punk movement it seemingly celebrated, with Vivienne Westwood who claimed it was boring.  Judging by what I saw of this play Vivienne got it right.

Derek Jarman was a leftist shock-jock with very little talent or wit.

In the theatrical review The Stage, Chris Bartlett writes:  ' What should be a short, sharp shot in the arm feels frustratingly flabby, with a spirited cast never quite corralled into a cohesive whole.  Its self-awareness is refreshing but even that palls during an overlong running time.'

I'm glad that I left after the interval.  That was a first!

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