CityLife

Ghost Boy

Ghost Boy
Contact
March 5, 2010

Though Contact doesn’t seem to be producing much theatre of its own these days – a cause of regret to those who remember past glories – it is collaborating on original work with others.

Ghost Boy is backed jointly by Contact and Birmingham Rep but the creative force is Liverpool-based 20 Stories High, an innovative outfit that takes its inspiration from conversations and workshops with inner city youngsters. 

Combining music, hip-hop and some puppetry with the general narrative, the show’s various messages about the perils of life for the young on a city sink estate are clearly made. But at far, far, too great a length.

Community worker Dennis (Everal A Walsh) is completely sick of kids running riot and has decided to deal with them by turning into Fly Man, a vigilante superhero.

Swaggering toughie Jamal (Tachia Newall) is leader of the local crew. In an almost casual spot of violence, he stabs a boy to death and has instant pangs of remorse.

Haunted thereafter by the boy’s ghost, Jamal encounters and begins to make friends with Dennis and their relationship begins to develop into an unlikely but sincere friendship. Until, that is, Jamal’s big secret is revealed.

The piece is an uneasy mix of the deadly serious and the comic, interspersed with occasional musical interludes. The subject matter is contemporary and important. But at two-and-three-quarter-hours it is vastly over extended.

It is very rarely a good idea for an author to direct his own work, which Keith Saha does here. The direction is slack, the script needs extensive cutting. Another hand on the tiller – more ruthless than an author is ever likely to be – might have made this a far sharper and more memorable experience.

Until March 13, 2010. Contact, Oxford Road, Manchester. Mon-Sat 8pm. Tickets £10, concessions £6. Box office 0161 274 0600 or www.contact-theatre.org.