摘要：S cuttlers, a new play by Rona Munro, is set in Ancoats, Manchester in 1885, and is concerned with the rivalry between two street-fighting gangs (the 'scuttlers' of the title): the Prussia Street gang and the Bengal Street Tigers. The theatre programme features a note by historian Dr Andrew Davies of Liverpool University, making clear that the research for this production is indebted to his 2009 book, The Gangs of Manchester. Hence, the theatregoer might be forgiven for expecting a stage version of the gangland and policing dramas with period settings that have been popular in recent years, from Copper (BBC America, 2012-13) to Ripper Street (BBC and Amazon, 2012-15) and Peaky Blinders (BBC 2013–), and even dating back as far as Martin Scorsese's film Gangs of New York (2002). In fact, the police barely feature in Scuttlers. The play is concerned with teenage gang members and the returning soldier Joe, something of an elder statesman at "about twenty" (Munro 2015: 14). The characters are discovering their identities and a sense of belonging through gang rituals and against the backdrop of the oppressive noise and exhausting labour of the cotton mills where they are employed. As such, as I will contend in this review, this production negotiates between past and present in ways which only occasionally produce neo-Victorian effects.
Loading...
