A MANCHESTER GIRLHOOD - REVIEW - BLACKPOOL OLD ELECTRIC THEATRE

Julia Pascal’s new play A Manchester Girlhood is a brilliant piece of theatre exploring the real lives of three Mancunian Jewish sisters, Isabel, Edith, and Pearl. Pascal’s work tugs at the heartstrings, offering a voice for their untold stories, as the girls navigate education, marriage, love, religion, and identity. The play is based on interviews with the three sisters, who grew up in Manchester after their parents fled Romanian anti semitism in 1910. This Pascal Theatre Company production is on tour in the North before returning to London, performing next at the Manchester Jewish Museum on April 23rd.

What is perhaps most striking about this play is its total lack of a linear structure. The play jumps back and forth between periods, to the extent where we see the girls in their 50s, and then in the next sentence they have returned to children. And yet, this does not feel jarring. I would say that this potentially confusing structure is stabilised by the play’s opening. We begin in Bucharest 1910, where we meet Esther Goldenberg, a young woman reluctantly forced to marry Emanuel Jacobs after
having turned down two suitors already. The couple move to Manchester, where they have three children. Once we are introduced to the sisters, the play abandons linearity, however, its structure feels grounded by its clear starting point. Alongside this, the structure is controlled by the way the scenes are announced, which again has the potential to be jarring, however, in this context serves to tame the chaotic timeline of the overall play.

Personally, one of the main takeaways from this piece was Pascal’s dedication to telling female stories, empowering all the women in the play. Each of the sisters has contrasting priorities and goals: Isabel dreams of being a doctor’s wife, Edith becomes a soldier, and Pearl marries a GI and moves to America. To me, the most debilitating moment of the piece was the realisation that once the sisters get married and settle into family life, their own lives seem to end. Beforehand, they have dreams that seem tangible, but once they are married their dreams and desires seem out of reach. The echo of “Why did I marry him?” stretching across the different timelines, from both the girls and their mother, is so poignant. While the sisters were not necessarily forced into marriage the same way Esther had been, they had no other choice. Despite the play’s lack of linear structure, each of their stories reaches marriage at the same time, like clockwork.

Overall, this performance of A Manchester Girlhood at the Blackpool Old Electric Theatre was brilliantly emotive and educational, especially since the audience had the privilege of discussing the piece with Pascal herself and the end. She discussed her own relationships with the sisters, being the daughter of Isabel, the eldest. The cast, made up of Rosie Yadid, Eoin O’Dubhghaill, Lesley Lightfoot, Giselle Wolf, and Amanda Maud, were incredible, switching between in a collection of characters with such versatility it felt effortless.

A Manchester Girlhood was in Blackpool for one night only, the show is at the Manchester Jewish Museum on 23 April, followed by London dates at Burgh House on 17 May and a run at JW3 from 21 – 23 May 2023. Find more info here!

{🎟 AD – PR invite – Tickets were gifted in exchange for an honest review}

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{🎟 AD – PR invite – Tickets were gifted in exchange for an honest review}

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The infamous Sh!t Faced Showtime are back in London with a festive edition, they have taken Dickens’ classic and put a drunken spin on it. The formula is the same as other iterations of the Shi!t Faced shows, one member of the cast has been boozing, and this time it is John Milton who plays Scrooge. Before the show, half a bottle of Jim Beam, some wine, and beer have been consumed in the previous 4 hours. The rest of the cast, try to keep the show on track, also aided by James Murfitt as the compere, Charles Dickens. The … More A PISSEDMAS CAROL – REVIEW – LEICESTER SQUARE
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