United We Stand @ Lantern Theatre Liverpool

If you’re after a relaxing evening at the theatre to unwind after a hard day’s work, Neil Gore’s United We Stand is not for you. Unapologetically political, it demands engagement from its audience, who, at the beginning of the play, are addressed as fellow workers by the actors onstage, and later in the second half, are forced to watch from the perspective of a jury during the infamous Shrewsbury trials.

The Lantern Theatre provides the perfect setting for the story of the 1972 builders' strike: its small capacity – coupled with the volume of a sell-out evening – evokes parallels with a jostling meeting hall. The minimalist metallic set – along with the multiple layers of clothes worn by the actors – hints at the harsh and austere reality of 1970s Britain and the grittiness of life for workers at the time.

That said, don’t be too put off by the play’s heavy themes – the rousing political speeches are counterbalanced by popular folk songs of the era and sharp comic dialogue between the two-man cast. Indeed, one of the highlights of the performance sees it descend into pure farce, with the actors parodying Ray Alan’s ‘Lord Charles’ as a method of delivering a scathing yet hilarious criticism of everything from the police force to the British media.

However, the multitude and brevity of the gags set the play at a high tempo, and tonight there was a sense that the actors were unable to keep up with the demands of the script (on more than a few occasions they forgot their lines). While this may have proven disastrous in other settings, the rapport established between the actors and their audience through early interaction made for a willingness to overlook these minor hiccups.

What is perhaps more worrying is the concern that the pace of the narrative may alienate those audience members who don’t have an extensive knowledge of the play’s context (Gore seems set on enraging rather than informing his audience), though hopefully the production will inspire its audience to seek out more information in order to personally engage with and lend their support to the cause.