Until the day I die, I’ll remember the moment when Farhaan Shah finds himself locked in a walk-in safe. Likewise the delegation to the Gome Elders. The what? You’ll have to see Tales of the Toymender at Oldham Library to find out.

Once again, the professional company from Oldham Theatre Workshop (OTW), many of them actors who came through the youth theatre, present a family Christmas show at Oldham Library, written by Sarah Nelson, with music composed and the whole thing directed by James Atherton. This year, as every year, it’s a delight: great fun, beautifully acted, beautifully sung, and hilarious. 

Tales of the Toymender is set in Gloaming where, at the winter equinox, the sun goes down and doesn’t return for 24 hours. That night, the children of the town take their favourite toys to the Gloaming Stone where they leave them to have adventures, collecting them when the sun returns. Only, in this instance, it doesn’t quite work like that, and it’s all toys and children to the pumps.

Although it looks like 16, there is a cast of six, and they can all sing. In addition, Shah, a Chetham’s and RNCM alumnus, plays the violin, while Atherton accompanies on keyboards. Oldham Library is a tiny venue with only 120 seats, so there’s no need for microphones and everyone sees every detail of the action.

Kendra Paige and Adil Muhammad are making their professional debuts playing the children, Pippa and Scout, and they do it with perfect pitch; we’re with them all the way. Joanne Pierce-Jones, a newcomer to the OTW ensemble, plays Greda (pronounced Greeder) who owns the town’s toy shop and, Greda by name, Greda by nature, profits from all the broken toys that need replacing. You get the feeling she sneaks out at night and breaks them herself. She sings like the Queen of the Night, whose aria ‘The vengeance of Hell boils in my heart’ seems entirely appropriate.

The Toymender, a shy and reclusive Shah, is gradually coaxed out of his shell by Pippa and Scout, and emerges as something of a hero. Sophie Ellicott as Pippa’s Mum and Tilma the baker, and a turn in a skin as a Gingerbread Person, is gorgeous; and Jordan Reece as Pippa’s Dad as well as a giant teddy bear, and Waldon, chairman of the Gome Appreciation Society of Gloaming, is just wonderful. Where he got that salute from I have no idea. 

Nelson wrote Letter to Boddah which won the Broadway Baby award for Best Theatre Show at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2019. Here, she has once again written a brand new family show with a story that makes you want to know what happens next, but gives you lots of lovely stuff along the way. Proper storytelling.

Atherton, whom my readers will remember recently did the amazing film score music for the New Vic’s Company of Wolves, has written some lovely songs and scored the action, and his playing throughout is, as usual, masterly. Given the size of the stage and moving everybody around, his direction is masterly too, in that we really don’t notice how complicated it is.

My main takeaway from all this can be summed up in one word: integrity. That’s an odd, not to say dull, word to describe a production, especially one as entertaining and delightful as this one. But for a hardened professional doing the rounds of Christmas shows, many of which are designed to steam the cash out of parents’ pockets (Christmas being the only time of year people feel obliged to take their children to the theatre), it’s the thing that strikes me about Oldham Theatre Workshop and its productions, whether they be the youth theatre or the professional company.

Hot from Spend Spend Spend at Manchester’s Royal Exchange, which is also beautifully done with great singing and dancing but left me wondering why do it?, I realise I know exactly why OTW do these shows, and so do they. They deliver a production for the whole family, one that entertains adults and children alike without any recourse to dialogue that children don’t understand, or to slapstick to keep them amused. And they do this with a tiny fraction of the budget of theatres like the Exchange, which was and may still be the best-funded theatre in the UK outside London.

This year, as last, OTW have received money from Oldham Coliseum Theatre Trust to help raise production standards and fund a two-week tour of the show to schools in the most deprived parts of Oldham. Good. Long may that continue, unless they can secure some funding in their own, much deserved, right.

Oldham Library is a short walk from the tram stop, and you have until December 24 to catch this little masterpiece.

By Chris Wallis, Theatre Editor

Main image by Kirsty Green

 

 https://oldhamtheatreworkshop.co.uk/js_events/toymender/