The Awkward Squad review, Arts Theatre

Agog on the Tyne

An anti-Thatcher petition is projected onto the stage to an accompaniment of folksy songs about the miners' strike. The backdrop morphs, first into black and white stills from the picket lines and then into into a modern street scene. Indoors, we meet the feisty Lorna, a woman who discovered her voice during the miner's strike and is about to be commemorated for her continuing good works by having the new community centre named after her. Twenty seven years on, how much has changed? Well, quite a lot.

Awkward is the right word for a small play with big ambitions that's thwarted by an imploding narrative. Lorna's eldest married a millionaire and arrives for the ceremony in a Rolls Royce. Her granddaughter - 26 and choosing her £9000 Vera Wang wedding dress - is sporting new breast implants. Lorna's youngest is toting the BAFTA she won for a documentary on the miners' strike. So far so good. Except nothing is as it seems. Their humorous eccentricity is emotional Polyfilla.

Karin Young's play is emotionally strong but intellectually weak: a scatter-gun thesis bristling with rage at the way people at the bottom are the first to be penalised during hard times. Lorna's daughters blur the argument - unless Young's argument is that everyone from Tyneside is a victim even if they're profligate rich bastards. The Awkward Squad of the title are the women and their collective power, but it is only Lorna (the fabulous Barbara Marten) who is powerful. Her descendants are merely planets that orbit her sun.

In conclusion: The play draws parallels between things now and things then, but it feels more 'then' than 'now'. There is a lot to like and enjoy, especially if you're a woman, but it's more a folding of arms than a call to them.