Simon Ward reviews Sunrise For The Blind at the Cockpit Theatre

Written by Lee Lomas, who also plays Nathan, the lynchpin around whom the story evolves, although it is very much an ensemble piece. This deceptively simple glimpse into working class life in Manchester is a far cry from the vision painted by the former Mayor and current Prime Minister of harmonious industry. Although it was conceived ten years ago, the succeeding decade has done nothing to improve the lot of its characters, quite the reverse, in fact. Every one of them feels trapped, desperate to escape but without the means to do so. The sense of despair is palpable, although shot through with a kind of gritty gallows humour.

Staged in the round, we meet best friends Nathan and Mark (Marcus Hodson) loitering, as ever, in the street. Nathan is obsessed with Ashley (Hannah Breedon) who works in the bakery. Nearby is the bookies, where Ashley’s dad, Johnny The Bastard (Lawrence Carmichael), spends most of his time, at least when he is not demanding free pasties from his daughter. Completing the scene is the corner shop where Mark works, owned by Leena (Tanu Ravi) and her husband.

Lomas brilliantly captures the everyday banality of their interactions – endlessly smoking, talking over each other, repeating themselves, never really saying anything important. Even when Nathan and Ashley finally get together, they still cannot express themselves properly, or deal with difficult or challenging emotions. Likewise although Mark and Nathan clearly have a deep connection, they show this by bantering and insulting each other relentlessly. There is a suggestion that the racism we undoubtedly witness also has its roots in a failure of communication – of all the characters only Mark has actually talked to Leena, and treats her as a ‘normal’ human being. For the others there is a bemused and profound ignorance – Johnny’s wife San (Sonja Doubelday) even wants to know if they have their own ‘Pakistani’ version of Corrie.

Where the two worlds really do collide, to catastrophic effect, however, is when Ashley’s sister Becci (in an outstanding performance by Hollie Burgess) turns out to have been in a relationship with Nas, Leena’s son. He has fled an arranged marriage and is now somewhere in London, leaving Becci to deal with the aftermath of their relationship alone. If San’s racism is based on misunderstanding, Johnny’s is visceral, and he explodes, with gruesome consequences that sink all of them deeper into the mire. Director Andrew Darren Elkins ramps up the tension with an unnerving boom between scenes as we sense the moment when the low-level anxiety and suppressed aggression will finally be unleashed.

There is a kind of tragedy here – the act that comes closest to heroism that we witness is the one that will be most severely punished. And every green shoot of hope will be destroyed by one moment of madness. Perhaps, if true escape really is impossible, there may be some consolation in learning to enjoy the simplest of things, and allow yourself the time to enjoy the beauty of the sunrise.

Sunrise For The Blind is playing as part of the Camden Fringe at the Cockpit Theatre until Friday 28th August