Strange how some nights you just know everything will be good. The train from Leeds to Huddersfield was rammed and lots of passengers were standing but one thoughtless numpty was sitting in the aisle seat with no one in the window. I hate people who are inconsiderate so I tapped him on the shoulder, as he was watching something on his iPad and had earphones in, and said ‘Excuse me, please.’ You would have thought I had asked him for a kidney donation the way he grunted and huffed, but I just smiled and thanked him as he tried to raise his ample torso from the seat. He could have just slid over but was not that clever. My silent prayers were answered as he must have been going to Manchester, not making a move as we approached Huddersfield. This gave me the opportunity to tick him off for a second time by asking him to let me out. If the first manoeuvre had been a chore, this seemed like a career. Anyway, grunting and moaning, he finally got up, I thanked him, smiled and alighted the carriage. Just time for a pint of hand-pulled Taylor’s Landlord to bask in my rather petty self-satisfaction before the play. Sometimes being a pain to a bigger pain is its own reward.
Ned Cooper (Lyle) and Tom Claxton (Jake)
If I thought that cheesing off Mr Braindead on the train, and my wonderful pint was good, the play itself was one of the most amazing things I have seen in a long time, and I have witnessed some good stuff lately. It was called fell (no upper case F) and was the story of two boys finding themselves and facing their demons. It is set on the fells of the Lake District, where one of them, Jake, played by Tom Claxton was doing his washing whilst the audience filed in and took their seats. The play was staged in The Cellar, a small, intimate space with just a couple of rows of seating at either side of the room with the action taking place down the middle. As we entered we were asked by at least two ushers as to whether the cast eating nuts, as they do in one scene, would be a problem. I said I was fine with that as long as they handed them round, a quip which elicited a blank look from the recipient. When I sat down I could see that the item of clothing being laundered was his trousers and he was obviously ‘going commando’, thus exposing his nether regions. The thought struck my mind that the eating of nuts might not have meant what I thought it did and hoped the usher had forgotten my stipulation. I need not have worried as there were no ‘scenes of a sexual nature’, nor of cannibalism, the nuts in question were of the hazel variety. Phew!
There is no story as such, other than Jake senses that someone is watching him and espies Lyle, played by Ned Cooper, who is hiding in the undergrowth. He takes him under his wing, and, as the evening progresses they strike up a friendship which causes them to reveal the secrets they are keeping from each another, and, in Jakes case, not even admitting to himself.
Ned Cooper as Lyle
Jake is 17 years-old and living a feral lifestyle on the fells in an abandoned bothy and eating what he traps and gathers, enjoying the odd treat with the bit of money he gets from selling the excess carcasses. Lyle, on the other hand is a 14 year-old schoolboy, or ‘nearly 15’ as he insists on putting it, from Workington. He is still in his school uniform as he said he had decided to go for a wander on the fells in order to ‘not be me’ for a while. He said he had made the decision after leaving home that morning, having forgotten his mobile phone and not taken the house keys with him to be able to retrieve it.
I am not going to delve any deeper into the piece as I hope that you get to see it at some stage – no pun intended – and I wouldn’t want to issue any spoilers. What I will say, though, is that the acting was so brilliant and intense, it made me feel as though I was on the fells rather than in a small, low-ceilinged room in a cellar in the middle of Huddersfield. The illusion enhanced by ambient sound of a trickling stream coming from the speakers, making me doubt the wisdom of my pre-show pint. This turned to rain later when the two were caught in a downpour whilst moving to other premises.
Tom Claxton as Jake
The stagecraft of the pair was also so brilliant that, after a few minutes, I forgot that they were obviously about ten years older than their characters, which was a good thing as I very much doubt that two adolescents could have done justice to the script, which was highly intense, with only the odd bit of humour injected.
I really cannot praise this play enough and, should you ever see it at a venue nearby, please go to witness a treat. This is so dependent on the actors that I hope you can catch it sometime in this tour, as they sometimes change.
For details of the UK tour, which includes visits to Holmfirth, Halifax and Goole, and continues until 29th October, please go to https://www.edgewaysproductions.co.uk/fell where there is also a trailer. Please note that the actors featured are not the ones I saw, and that the Arcola Theatre is in London.
Photographs, which are of the cast I saw, were provided by Duncan Clarke PR and taken by Keith Freeburn Photography
The Creative Team are:
Director – Janys Chambers
Designer – Jane Linz Roberts
Stage Manager – Tom Conwy
Sound Designer – Simon Adams
Assistant Directors – Anna Millington & Keane Harrison
Tour Booker – Susan Burns
PR – Duncan Clarke PR
Social Media Consultant – Chris O’Connor
Producer – Deborah Dickinson
To put a cap on the whole evening, I arrived at Huddersfield Station just in time to catch an empty train to Leeds and arrive at the bus station at the same time as my vehicle home. A night that will take some beating, again no pun intended, but you will have to go see the play to get that one.
Tyke It To The Limit 