February 6-11, The Little Theatre, Dover Street

Review by David Moore

Recently voted as one of the best plays of the century, The York Realist had its last major outing as a joint staging at the Crucible, Sheffield and the Donmar Warehouse, London in 2018. Written just 20 years ago by Peter Gill, it is set in an impoverished farm cottage in rural Yorkshire in the 1960s.

I saw it on opening night at The Little and was transported to that farm cottage scene; its single combined kitchen and living space, with an old black range cooker as the centrepiece and only source of physical warmth for George and his mum who live there.

The core story is farm-hand George’s love for middle-class theatre director John, up from London, who is director of a series of biblical plays in York, in which George is treading the boards for the first time. Straight-talking Yorkshireman George (John Moulding) sees his visiting sister (Victoria Flowers), brother-in-law (Paul Beasley) and their son (Joshua Thompson) for tea – Yorkshire Tea one hopes – whilst yearning for John (Joe Allen), who makes calls to the cottage to see him. Doreen (Natalie Tebbutt) is a kind-hearted friend who also visits to entice his mum (Sue Dale) out to a chapel evening.

The play reveals George’s relationship with John and its many tensions: working class vs middle class, north vs south, rural vs city and life as a gay man in a straight and deeply religious family. Of course, homosexuality was illegal in the 1960s.This is all delivered through joyful Yorkshire dialogue.

Gill time-shifts an early scene – which was a little confusing, but you soon realise why – and I found myself engrossed in the play as it progressed, keen to learn how George and John tackle their different backgrounds and tensions, and of course to hear what happens to them.

Despite being set in the 1960s, The York Realist seems so up to date, reflecting many of the same conflicts and challenges that we see today. Contrast how the play depicts chapel-going Mum and Doreen alongside the biblical plays staged by George and John, with how our present-day Church of England has rejected same-sex marriages in their churches, despite these being made legal in the UK some eight years ago.

On at The Little for the rest of this week, this is drama at its best and a real slice of 60s Yorkshire, around many cups of tea. A warm yet poignant play that engages throughout.

Photo by Mary Jayne Harding Scott.