The 2026 Harrogate Theatre Drama Season kicks off with a belter. It is a new work by Leeds playwright, Philip Stokes, and is set in Room 102 of the Grand Hotel, Brighton on 12th October, 1984 during the Conservative Party conference which was being held there. For those of you too young to remember, just before 3.00am, on that date, the IRA detonated a bomb in an attempt to assassinate Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. It resulted in five deaths, including MP Sir Anthony Berry, and thirty-one serious injuries. Mrs Thatcher escaped unscathed.
Although set at the scene of the atrocity, the play is not a docudrama, in fact the piece finishes just after the device exploded. There are several references to the party conference, but only as a benchmark to indicate the characters’ political leanings. Don’t panic, that aspect is not preachy one way or the other, it is skilfully used to illustrate that, although approaching situations from opposite directions, this pair have more in common that first appears.
The plot, what there is of one, concerns Barry, a Yorkshire businessman who is staying in the aforementioned hotel, and Johnny, a 19 year-old man who had been getting ready to sleep rough for the night until he was invited to share the room. Although the Grand Hotel lives up to its name, the room in question was a single and in a rather more downmarket wing of the premises; there was no tv and the facilities were basic. It always used to annoy me when I worked away that you paid significantly more per person for a single room than for a double and the quality was vastly inferior, so much so that I would splash out the extra to upgrade, and still do on the few occasions when I travel nowadays – even though I am a tightfisted Tyke myself.
Johnny, played by Jack Stokes, examines Barry’s stock samples of Dungeons and Dragons figures.
Johnny is from London but lives in Brighton doing what he can to scrape by, no matter how menial or degrading, so, when he is approached by Barry he assumes that it is for sexual favours, something which, if the price is right, he is not averse to providing for the benefit of either gender. He also has a sideline in selling sachets of drugs to weekend clubbers visiting the town. Should they be heavily inebriated, the packets only contain baking soda.
The real reason that Barry has invited Johnny to stay over is more altruistic, in that the young man reminds him of his son, who died during childhood from a terminal illness. He is still haunted by the guilt of doubling down on his work to provide financially for his child, rather than taking time off to be with him. This is also a decision which cost him his marriage and, ironically, subsequently caused him to immerse himself in work to an even greater extent.
Johnny’s journey leading to the fateful evening began when, as a young child, his well-to-do parents packed him off to boarding school. He rebelled against this as he grew and ended up by leaving home to fend for himself. The essence of the play was an examination as to how the two men viewed each other and their interaction with the world in general.
Having said all that, this was basically a comedy and an hilarious one too. The pair were stereotypical; the gruff self-made Yorkshire businessman who was very careful with money, so much so that the minibar in the room was out of bounds to both of them; and the wheeler dealer Londoner who would do anything to get by. It was in this context that the spectre of Margaret Thatcher was used as a point of reference.
The comedy was time-specific and so some of it a bit alien to what could be said in polite society today, illustrating how much attitudes have changed over the past forty years. It also coincided with the AIDS epidemic which obviously influenced Barry’s attitude towards Johnny. “I hope that you don’t have HMV” – “It’s not HMV, that’s a record shop!” Another gem was Johnny accusing Barry of being homophobic, “I’m not homophobic, I love my house.”
The play concluded, as previously stated, when the bomb exploded, panic set in and concern exposed the men’s true characters as they reverted to their basic instincts, which turned out to be not too dissimilar.
Johnny and Barry, played by Lee Bainbridge, survey the aftermath of the blast.
I found this to be a very intense, moving and extremely funny hour and a half, with the acting superb by both Lee Bainbridge as Barry and Jack Stokes, Johnny. The set, being a single room, added to the intensity by being a touch squalid and very claustrophobic. I must point out here that I am not claustrophobic – I love Santa.
The play was only at Harrogate Theatre until 5th September, but fear not, as it is being staged at Leeds Playhouse from 15th to 17th October so please go to https://www.leedsplayhouse.org.uk/event/brighton-84/ to get a ticket, but don’t hang about as the first night is already sold out.
To see what else is coming to Harrogate Theatre, take a look at https://www.harrogatetheatre.co.uk/whats-on/ paying particular attention to the remaining three works in Harrogate Theatre’s Drama Season; namely Dial M For Murder, 8th-12th September; The Highwayman, 16th-19th September and Private Peaceful, 24th-26th September. If you scroll back a couple of articles you will see my review of the Autumn Season Launch.
All images supplied by Harrogate Theatre
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