Now and then we get a gem of a play

Giles Shenton Productions have visited the Corn Hall several times over the years, and can always be relied upon to offer up well staged, thought-provoking shows. Flo’ Smith Now and Then must rate as one of their very best. Christopher Saul, while a student, recorded a series of interviews he conducted with his grandmother, during which she recounted a life that bridged two World Wars. Decades later, transcripts of those interviews with the eponymous Florence Smith formed the basis of the play performed at the Corn Hall, a tiny gem of a performance that was both intimate and far reaching in its scope.

 

It’s often the case that plays based on source material suffer from a weak narrative trajectory – we excuse this because, after all, real life is often messy and inconclusive. Their power comes not from the quality of the drama but the knowledge that it really happened. Probably, the best compliment I can offer this production is to admit that it was only when I got home that I realised what I had seen was anything other than understated, yet riveting fiction. Ursula Mohan’s pitch-perfect portrait of a woman in her third age, her body slowed down by aching bones but with a mind as sharp as ever, was both moving and compelling. Her story, of a girl growing up in poverty, estranged from her family and struggling with the privations of war-torn Britain, had an authentic specificity and yet spoke for a generation. We rightly mourn and celebrate the men lost to warfare, Florence Smith told us, yet perhaps dismiss the horror of uncertainty that yoked the women left at home.

 

Plays that are both written and directed by the same person often suffer from superfluous padding, the single artistic perspective unable to see where a judicious nip and tuck would benefit the piece, but no such criticism can be levelled here. Helped along by a handsomely dressed stage and involving sound design, an evening with Flo’ Smith scoots along. Despite a generous running time, it offers up a rounded and sobering picture of resilient working-class life in the face of adversity.