Do I Love You? Derby theatre

****

Northern Soul  was a regionalised phenomena. Although a huge music fan myself , it barely touched the South where I lived as a teenager. In the Midlands and North it was massive. The Catacombs club Wolverhampton, The  Wigan Casino , Blackpool Mecca, the twisted Wheel Manchester and Golden Torch Stoke were all catalysts and platforms for a truly underground music movement.

Theatre has been a very good crucible for promoting popular music via the Musical. It has been less sure footed  in producing drama about  music. Prolific playwright and social anthropologist John Godber aims to put that right in this drama about the Northern Soul Scene and its social impact incorporating dance, song and drama.

This is Northern Soul for a new generation, but  is this England 1975 or 2025? The bins are not being emptied, economic cuts are everywhere and the prospects for young people seem to be diminishing every day. Here the three graduates are flipping burgers.

Playwright John Godber reprises a social narrative formula in which the audience is often addressed directly which he cultivated so successfully with  both “Bouncers” and “Teechers” (sic). Occasionally the delivery is more of shared interrupted monologues than straight speech.

The main protagonists are three twentysomethings, Sally, Nat and Kyle, from Hull  who share a  love for Northern Soul  nurtured at  at an all-nighter in Cleethorpes not deterred by the pensionable age of many of the audience .They resolve  to learn the dances so they can compete at the blue ribband of Northern Soul events – the Weekender at Blackpool’s Tower Ballroom. It echoes  the Stigwood/ Travolta dance masterpiece “Saturday Night Fever”, apart from being set in Cleethorpes and Blackpool England  rather than New York and Studio 54, USA.

Godber directs brilliantly, The three actors create  a busy fast-food restaurant  crowded buses, and bustling  night clubs .  Martha Godber (, Chloe McDonald and Emilio Encinoso-Gil are all on stage throughout the performance, taking on further  characters, and  seemingly always dancing – keeping the play moving briskly and with brio. Elizabeth Godder  produces.

All of this is underpinned by a  blistering soundtrack which I suspect will have the audience racing to Spotify afterwards as they are introduced to new musical gems. The script is light, poignant, wistful and humorous as well as being  nostalgic for the predominantly pensioner audience with all our yesterdays revisited.

But there was one big frustration. The soundtrack was set at a low volume, for an audience with deteriorating hearing ( too many late night gigs) it should have been louder to capitalise on the good vibes. Furthermore, I presume to save on royalties, only excerpts were played. The audience was often singing along and yearning for the tracks to continue. This frustration was exacerbated at the end when the finale demanded a singalong/ dance-along, and instead the  actors walked off stage!

Nonetheless, a well written, accurate and hugely satisfying glimpse into Northern Soul which continues until  29^th April and then departs on nationwide tour.