Laying Tracks, Theatre Review. The Gregson Institute, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Elaine Stewart, Ben Sherlock, Ann Edwards.

Writer: Jack Stanley.

Grin Theatre and new writing, it goes hand in hand with a newly temperate person finding they adore the taste of Ginger Beer, an England football team being lauded and dismissed in equal measure and the hope that at some point an unpopular Government will fall upon their collective swords.

Inside The Gregson Institute, the latest writers to have the guiding hand of Helen Kerr and Kiefer Williams placed on their shoulders took their places to witness their incredible achievement being played out infront of them and for Jack Stanley it has to be said that this was a young playwright who captured the mood perfectly.

Ben Sherlock was superb as the young lad caught between his mother’s fixated ideals and need to rage and publicly protest against the world and especially the people behind the much vaunted HS2 train line that threatens to tear up the countryside in the name of shaving a few minutes off the time in getting from one city to another in England and all in the name of that global bloated creature named The Economy. The roller coaster of emotions he portrayed in the space of the period of the play would have had a seasoned professional clasping their hands in delight as he went from high spirited to sympathetic mocking to guilt laden in the time it took to perform Jack Stanley’s contribution to the Grin Young Playwrights Showcase. This act is difficult enough during a full length production but to do it under the intense pressure that all young actors go through when reading a new work was nothing short of expressive and eye catching.

Laying Tracks follows a great path placed down by many a playwright of the confrontation between mother and son where there is no confrontation to be sought, just the truth that needs to come out and in the only way possible, through frankness and tears. Jack Stanley shows great maturity in the writing and the play is captured superbly by the three actors and Director Zara Brown.

On a night where the next generation of writers in Liverpool were held aloft by Grin Theatre, Jack Stanley is a name to make sure you write down for future enjoyment. A lofty conception, humbly written with the right level of pathos and humour to carry it through, excellent awareness of timing and above all, something in which to say you were blessed in which to see performed.

Ian D. Hall