Whilst delving into the New Perspectives archive to find productions for our anniversary postcard collection (available to purchase in our online shop), we found a theme of memory and reflections running through a range of productions from the last half century.

 

In this selection there are stories of finding long lost histories, grief and immortalising those who have passed, and reliving the good old days.

Finding Nana by Jane Upton (2017/18)

Jane Upton’s autobiographical play, Finding Nana, was originally produced in association with Lincolnshire One Venues, previewed at Soho Theare and in Lincolnshire venues before travelling to the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe Festival where it garnered many 5 star reviews from The Stage, Three Weeks and BritishTheatre.com. 

 

The play explored Jane’s relationship with and the loss of her own Nana who was diagnosed with vascular dementia. One review read: “Jane Upton’s one act play […] is an incredibly engaging poetic narrative on the subjects of loss of a loved one and memory” (Phil Lowe, Nottingham Post).

 

Finding Nana won the hearts of audiences across the tour and prompted many audience members to reflect on their own memories of family and friends with one audience member commenting: “The holidays for me with my Nana is what it was all about growing up. So, everything that the actor tonight has said has brought back so many memories and emotions, which is why I cried about four times throughout it”.

 

A Fortunate Man, inspired by the book by John Berger and Jean Mohr (2019)

To celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the book ‘A Fortunate Man: The Story of a Country Doctor’, theatremaker Michael Pinchbeck and photographer Julian Hughes along with a team of creatives created this production to explore how much the NHS had changed over those 50 years. The team went into doctors surgeries across rural areas around the East Midlands as research for the production and to investigate doctors experiences.

 

In a review with Left Lion in August 2017, Michael said: “It’ll be a mixture of written text and the images, I’ve written something that’s part slideshow, part adaptation, part political manifesto.”

Summer Comes and Life Changes by Andy Barrett (2002)

Written by Nottingham-based playwright Andy Barrett, Summer Comes and Life Changes follows casting agent Jason whose mother has lost her memory. While looking at some old photographs, Jason finds images that show him the truth about a man he never knew – his father. So, Jason and his mother set off on a journey through the past and to the future and “on the way they stumble across Elvis impersonators, chinchilla farmers, sandwich factory workers, village quizmasters, and Methodists with nowhere to go”.

 

The Love Song of Alfred J Hitchcock by David Rudkin (2013/14)

Adapted from his award-winning radio play, David Rudkin's The Lovesong of Alfred J Hitchcock originally toured with New Perspectives in 2013 before transferring to New York for Brits Off Broadway in 2014 in a co-production with Leicester Curve. 

 

The play was a stream of consciousness, non-linear story that broke the fourth wall, “a darkly riveting study of a filmmaker who turned what his wife terms his ‘crazy inner life’ into public entertainment” (Michael Billington in The Guardian, 1 October 2013).

50 Years On – A Song Show by New Perspectives Theatre Company (1989)

Directed by Nona Sheppard, 50 Years On put four Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA) performers from World War II back on the stage for an evening of songs and gags – “a unique opportunity for old and young alike to relive the magic of Second World War entertainment fifty years on”.

 

In the press release for the production, regarding the history of ENSA (which was popularly translated to ‘Every Night Something Awful’), it says: “Fees were low, but the attraction of a regular salary and the desire to entertain brought in not only artistes who would have been better employed in almost any other capacity – tap dancers who fell over, jugglers who dropped their baubles and cat trainers whose cats ignored them – but also a hundred of competent people who made long journeys to remote camp sites and factory canteens to bring a touch of glamour to a grey working day.”

 

The production was a hit with the Mansfield Chad reporting: “With just a piano, a wardrobe of glitzy dresses and a few hand props, the Mansfield-based theatre company gave an unforgettable performance to a packed house, as the punters heckled performers and joined in with the choruses, forgetting they were watching a play.”

 

The Great Almighty Gill by Daniel Hoffmann-Gill (2022)

The Great Almighty Gill is another New Perspectives production that opened at Edinburgh Fringe, this time in 2022. Similarly to Finding Nana, this play was also autobiographical and chronicled Daniel’s sometimes wonderful, sometimes troubled relationship with his father through the structure of a eulogy at a funeral… with lipsyncing. 

 

In a Theatre Bubble interview, Daniel said: “I relive the funeral every time I perform the show and that has obvious repercussions for me but I feel secure enough in my grief and in my own emotional framework to be able to do this.”