Last seen on this stage for its 50th anniversary in 2008, the most famous play to be set in Manchester's neighbouring city, from long before it was a fashionable dockland media city, returns to the Royal Exchange directed by Emma Baggott, who apparently wrote a dissertation on the playwright at university.
From the heart of the 'kitchen sink' era—and it does actually feature a kitchen sink on stage, unlike Look Back in Anger, though the naturalism is broken by asides to the audience and songs between scenes—Delaney's play is centred on mother and daughter Helen and Jo, moving, as they have many times before, to a rather grotty Salford flat as Helen is escaping from something that isn't specified, though Jo assumes it is Peter (Andrew Sheridan), a younger man her mother has been dating who, nevertheless, soon finds them. Helen isn't exactly a natural mother and their conversation is peppered with cruel jibes, but Jo has learned to give as good as she gets.
When Peter proposes, Helen disappears to live with him in a very nice house—it seems he has money—leaving teenage Jo to fend for herself. A brief affair with black sailor Jimmie (Obadiah) leaves Jo pregnant, but, though he claims to love her, he doesn't return; there is a moment at the beginning of act 2 in this production to suggest he nearly did, though this is easily missed. However, her friend Geoffrey (David Moorst), an art student whom she assumes is gay though he never confirms this, moves in to help her, and even offers to marry her. That is until her mother returns claiming concern for her daughter—Jo assumes she has been thrown out by her husband—and Geoffrey is bullied out of the way.
This production is, surprisingly, very funny despite the bleakness of its setting, without stretching the bounds of authenticity, but the pace is uneven: the first scene feels rushed and hard to make out, but the rest of the first act zips along at a perfect pace to put across the humour and the vivacity of the characters, making a long first act fly by. However the second half becomes rather slow and ponderous, with the formerly snappy dialogue punctuated by lengthy pauses, and It starts to drag before the end.
The performances are all fine, but this play relies on strong performances from the central two actors. When she warms into the part after the first scene, Jill Halfpenny fits the role of Helen perfectly, while Rowan Robinson, Salford born and bred and in her professional stage debut after graduating from RADA in 2022, dominates the stage throughout the play and is a real find for the Exchange. While theirs is a combative relationship, there are moments that seem to show some genuine warmth and concern for one another behind the cruelty, even if this is always spoiled by Helen's selfishness and Jo's stubbornness.
Scenes are linked by the haunting Irish folk vocals of Nishla Smith with snatches of repeated songs, including "Dirty Old Town" and a setting of "Fear no more the heat o' the sun" from Cymbeline. Peter Butler's design gives a perfect evocation of the seedy flat, though I'm not sure what the significance is of the fairground carousel lights surrounding the stage.
While it does feel too long by the end of not far short of three hours, this is still an entertaining and worthwhile revival of a play that still works well more than half a century after it was premièred.