80’s Mania Show
Theatre Severn
Saturday July 14th
There was an incredible buzz of excitement as the crowd of 30/40 and 50-somethings gathered at Theatre Severn for a trip backwards into the 1980s courtesy of The Reunion Group. What a splendid occasion it was for all as the live band pumped out hits by; Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Wham, Toni Basil, Boy George and so many others. The audience had, themselves, come to a reunion of strangers, they might not have known it but this was re-union in music. A blast back to different days, to days long gone by.
It was such a great spectacle to see as instantly and readily they reached the audience through music, dance and colour. It was easy to forget that this music came from a decade of The Falklands War, Thatcherism, Factory Closures, The Miners Strike and other such horrors that affected our days back then. One needs the gift of hindsight to contextualise the music and realise that it was about having fun. The chord riffs were simple, the lyrics, in some cases, as in Adam Ant, maybe, were just pure doggerel but the atmosphere was one of party.
It took just seconds for the auditorium to come alive with dancing and singing people lapping up this pure, brilliantly delivered, nostalgia.
So the question presents itself what is nostalgia? To many it’s a double edged sword firstly being a reflection of a filtered past where all the pains and bad memories have been forgotten and one is young again. Secondly, however, and this more sorrowful, could nostalgia be born out of panic over the ever eternal ticking clock? If we can loose ourselves to a time thirty years ago we can forget that our true direction is controlled by a one speed gear box that gear ensuring we only ever move forward. The overall journey gets shortened daily so how nice to loose yourself somewhere further back down the path, even if it is only for two hours.
When one looks at sixties music it was intrinsically linked with what was happening in society, it was about change and revolution, it was about galvanising the listener into direct action into rebellion. By the time one reaches the Eighties it becomes clear that the music was an escape, a fantasy, a new romantic which made life in Britain slightly more bearable, slightly more risqué, slightly more alternative. The cannon in the eighties had been diverted to comedy to make our social comment and that rule seems to still apply to today thirty years on.
So the stage was full of fun loving, talented, extremely photogenic versatile people. Keen readers of this critic will already know the stance taken on tribute bands and keen readers will also know that he, in the past, has accused tribute nights of being nothing more worthy than plagiarism. There was none of that tonight. Whilst the cast dressed to look like the character it was not a, “Tonight Matthew I will be,” kind of night. It was, instead, a highly polished, extremely meticulously rehearsed event. Whilst I might not be over the moon that I was present during that grisly decade, I was certainly delighted that tonight Frankie told my little suede boots to rock to the sound of yesterday.
Critic Rating.
This is a four out of five star show.
Owen Lewis
Sofia is a successful playwright living in Shrewsbury. After graduating from Wolverhampton University in theatre. Sofia went on to become an actor and film maker. Her first play was published in 2015 and her plays have been seen all around the world. She is also the instigator of the popular concerts, The Sound Of Shrewsbury Folk. She has been writing with loveshrewsbury for 13 years and loves Theatre Severn and all she sees there.
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