Arts > Theatre

Anglia Square A Love Story

Anglia Square

12/07/19

“Over the water, come if you dare. Over the water, to Anglia Square”

 
This is the invitation extended to the audience of several hundred in the grounds of The Garth at Blackfriars Hall by The Common Lot. and it sets the scene for their latest promenade production. And we are, indeed, taken across the Wensum to 'Norwich Over the Water' (or North Wic as it was known as in Roman times). It is a journey that, over the course of two hours, and more than six centuries, tells the tale of two cities – the affluent trading quarter, with its Norman castle, cathedral and bustling market square, and its poorer but industrious counterpart – home to the weavers, dyers and tanners who tirelessly toiled to produce the economic wealth and power for landlords, merchants and traders. It is a journey that continues its way through the Industrial Revolution, the clearance of the slums, the devastation of the Blitz, and through the optimism of post-war regeneration. It is a tale of community and loyalty, of exploitation and revolution, of power and profit, but most of all it is a story of love. A love of Norwich, and the people who live here.

 
“Be careful, they wash their underwear in the river”, we are warned as we make our way across St George's Bridge, reconvening just across the road from the Playhouse Theatre. Willow branches at the water's edge dapple the evening sunlight and Barbara Hepworth's bronze sculpture stoically reminds us that this is the same river that carried the 'Strangers' here from the  Low countries to bolster our weaving industry during Elizabethan times (duly confirmed by the sight of two more Strangers arriving by rowing boat complete with a canary and 'We 'int from Round Here' emblazoned on their banner).
 

We take an exploratory journey along St Georges Street, Calvert Street, Colegate or Magdalen Street, encountering numerous vignettes and re-enacted scenes from Norwich's social and cultural past -  neighbours nattering from first-floor windows, a fossil hunter examining lumps of chalk, a school choir, jiving GI's, a tea-shop owner searching for her long-demolished tea-rooms, and a punk band performing under the Magdalen Street flyover. Finally, by whichever route we  take, we arrive for the finale beneath the canopy of Anglia Square, that landmark love-it-or-hate-it behemoth of Sixties brutalism. Once home to HM Stationery Office, as well as a modern cinema, a multi-storey car park and a bustling pedestrianised shopping centre, it is now writhing in its death throes whilst developers and planners argue over its future. Civil servants no longer need stationery, and we have become a nation of streamers and of online and convenience shoppers. Its future is still not certain.

 
So can we really justify a two hour musical homage to a decaying architectural blot on the landscape? The answer is, without doubt, a resounding 'Yes'. The Common Lot are consummate masters of local community theatre – just look at their previous subject material -  Kett's Rebellion ('1549'); the arrival of the Strangers ('Come Yew In'); and a tribute to Norfolk's radical women ('All Mouth, No Trousers'). Each one has been painstakingly researched, lovingly created, and wonderfully performed by a company largely consisting of enthusiastic non-professional actors and musicians under the passionate direction of Simon Floyd.

 
'Anglia Square – A Love Story' is certainly their most ambitious project to date. With the action set over three stages, and with an audience encouraged to meander their way through the back streets before finally arriving in Anglia Square itself, it requires a cast of over 100 musicians, singers, actors and stewards to make it all happen. It is a show about the inevitability of change, and the need to ensure that change is sympathetic to, and commensurate with, the needs of the community.

 The script is an absolute delight, the show being delivered as a rich ragout of comedy, satire and social comment. Song lyrics are packed with local references and in-jokes intended to delight the audiences, and the melodies have me humming the tunes all the way home. There are moments of gut-wrenching beauty and heartbreaking poignancy, but countered by a lively repartee, perfectly observed characterisation, and  plenty of the affectionately exaggerated vowel sounds of the Norwich accent. It is delivered with the humanity, the love and the attention to detail that we have come to expect from The Common Lot. Always though-provoking, but never judgemental. Always striving to work with local groups and communities, and always generating a palpable sense of fun and inclusivity. The result is an intoxicating and infectious piece of street theatre from a company that has once again raised its own already lofty bar to new heights.
 
As a result, I am more in love with this city than ever before. Anglia Square included.