A melancholy and moving adaptation of the book by Kazuo Ishiguro – well-worth catching during its Northampton run this week.
Kathy (Nell Barlow) and Ruth (Matlida Bailes) in Never Let Me Go – Photography -Hugo-Glendinning
Right then, if you haven’t read the book, or watched the film, beware the gentle spoilers ahead. Despite having a one-line synopsis from my 16-year-old daughter who ‘did’ the book for GCSE (“dunno, s’about clones”) I wouldn’t say I knew much more than that before taking our seats.
We’re introduced to our protagonist/narrator Kathy, (an extraordinary performance by Nell Barlow who is hardly ever off stage), a ‘carer’ for newly-admitted surgery patient Philip (Maximus Evans). Only this isn’t a normal hospital and these aren’t sick patients. Philip encourages the kind but buttoned-up Kathy to tell him her story, and we are skillfully transported across three timelines.
Nell Barlow and Maximus Evans
Kathy and her best friend Ruth, (Matilda Bailes, who plays the selfish teenager so expertly I was growling at the interval), had attended a privileged but totally secluded liberal arts boarding school called Hailsham. Other, less pleasant schools exist and Hailsham has developed an almost mythical status as their pupils are encouraged to be creative and healthy, but mostly oblivious to what the audience works out quite quickly. And the actions of Hailsham’s staff (Susan Aderin and Emilie Patry) are mysterious.
In fact, in this unsettling sci-fi story that feels ominously closer than we might want to consider, human frailties are offset by technology’s ability to allow some people to live longer and stronger than nature had intended – at the expense of others.
As Kathy reflects on her past, supporting Philip and then others through their ‘donor journey’, there’s a latent sadness about the inevitability of the former pupils’ fate, punctuated by a desperate need for hope.
Kathy’s connection with her childhood oddball friend Tommy (Angus Imrie) is palpable. Her friendships with alumni Hannah (Amelie Abbott), Laura (Princess Khumalo) and Alfie (Tristan Waterson) at once close yet disconnected, are as familiar as our own connections to schoolfriends with shared experiences.
We follow the utterly human patterns of love, joy, fear, longing, deceit, pity and heartbreak as Kathy, Ruth and their childhood friends transition away from school towards their adult fates.
A genuinely expert young cast move along a brilliant adaptation by Suzanne Heathcote (of Killing Eve and soon to be released Thursday Murder Club fame) thanks to the speedy direction of Christopher Hayden (it took me a few goes to notice the last line of each scene transitions straight into the next). Tom Piper’s set is beautiful but simple, and I found myself momentarily distracted from the unsettling ethics of the not so futuristic fantasy playing out by the clean lines of the light wood carpentry and frosted panes.
Former schoolfriends Kathy and Laura (Nell Barlow and Princess Khumalo)
Barlow’s Kathy, Bailes’ Ruth and Imrie’s Tommy, (a nagging feeling I knew his voice resolved by his previous job on The Archers), are highly commended as the three fractured friends and you’d do well to catch this exciting ensemble on the Northampton stage before it continues on tour.
Never Let Me Go is a Royal & Derngate, Rose Theatre, Bristol Old Vic and Malvern Theatres co-production and runs until Saturday October 26. For tickets click here or call 01604 624811.
From mid-table mediocrity to the top of the table - and with more than a dozen international players in the squad - Northampton have a target on their back as the team to beat. Hilary Scottspeaks to Fin Smith, Alex Mitchell and Tommy Freeman about losing, winning and doing it all over again in the new season.
“When I was in the academy, I’d look about and be like ‘there’s Stevie Myler, Ben Foden…’ and I was like, oh, be really polite around them and what-not,” says Saints and England scrum-half Alex Mitchell. “I guess we’ve kind of stepped into that role now.”
‘Mitch’, an essential part of the Saints structure and now with 123 appearances for the club, wracks his brain when asked who the new ‘old man’ of the club is, until it dawns on him that at the grand old age of 27, it might actually be him.
“It must be Hutch [Hutchinson], he’s 28.” (Elliot Millar-Mills is actually the eldest, a club staffer whispers behind us). “I guess it’s people like Hutch and I guess it’s me, and Ferbs [George Furbank].”
Alex Mitchell
It turns out rugby players don’t rank seniority on age, but on caps (appearances): “I was the first pick in the draft for the lockers, because that’s done on caps, and you get two for international caps so it was between me and Hutch I think.
“But we’ve got a really young squad and it’s exciting.”
Mitchell joined the academy back in 2015, and quickly joined the senior squad training with scrum halves like Lee Dickson and then Cobus Reinach. He’s now the first choice 9 with competition from Tom James, and plenty of academy talent from players like Jake Garside and Archie McParland coming through.
Mitch was lucky enough to meet new supporter Pippa, aged four months, and mum Emily, who had come to the club’s cup day during training. Yes, that’s a gumshield, not his teeth! (photo courtesy of Emily Blake)
He’s keen to get the season started, and with an away game against last year’s rivals Bath, who they beat in the Gallagher Premiership final, Mitch knows they need a strong start: He said: “Obviously, is the first game of the season, so it’s the first hit out for a lot of boys and we know it’s a massive, a massive game. Now, obviously, they’re going to be one of the best sides in the league again. It will be a great marker for us, especially down at their place, a tough place to go to see where we’re at.”
Fly-half Fin Smith, at the grand old age of 22, is also one of the Saints’ backs to have impressed both at club and international level and says the 23-24 season was the best of his career. His relationship with scrum-half Mitchell is key to Saints’ success and evidence of the strong bonds between players on and off the pitch:
Fin Smith
He explained: “Firstly, he’s one of my best mates, Mitch. We’ve spent a lot of time together. We obviously grew a lot last year and spoke sort of every other day about how we saw the direction of the team going and how me and him could help drive that. And then off the back of the tour we’ve had a couple of conversations about things that we think England do well, and things that we think Northampton do well, and how we can sort of take the best from both and drive that into this season.
“We’re both just looking to get better day by day and I’ve loved playing with him, he’s a joy to be alongside.”
Smith was snapped up by Saints after the collapse of Worcester Warriors in 2022 after he played a few games for Ampthill, and his career has blossomed at Franklins’ Gardens, winning the Premiership and causing headaches for England selectors over which Smith to choose in the crucial fly-half spot.
Ollie Sleightholme and Fin Smith at pre-season training
“It’s been such a busy year, we probably had a couple of days after winning the Premiership to really celebrate and enjoy what we’ve done as a group, because obviously it was a huge achievement and a great year as a team, and I felt like I took big strides personally. But then we were straight back into the next challenge, going to New Zealand, Japan and trying to get on with that. Everything’s quite fast moving, but I’m sure it’s something I’ll look back on in years to come as an amazing year and probably the best one I’ve enjoyed so far in my career.
“Last year I had a big, big goal to get capped – and that happened. And obviously we did something great in the league. I’d love for this group to be able to back up what we did last year, I think potentially with some of the some of the outgoings we’ve had, maybe people are writing us off a little bit, but we’re super confident that we’ve got enough quality to back ourselves.”
Smith was one of seven players to join up for a holiday in Bali after the England tour and says the break from playing was welcome – even if it included a bout of ‘Montezuma’s revenge’:
“I did a little pit stop in Bali for a few days but unfortunately caught a bout of Bali belly which had me out on my feet for a few days…but it was nice to cut loose after such a long tour.
“I think personally the way the way last season probably finished for me, has given me a real hunger going into this season. We had a great year with Northampton and then maybe didn’t quite perform how would I liked over in New Zealand [with England]. So actually it’s been less sort of dwelling on what’s been, and actually being really positive so it doesn’t feel too much like pressure.
“I want to be the best player I can be, and that’s all I’m working towards every day. We’ve always talked about playing space and moving the ball. So yeah, that’s absolutely the goal. Keep pushing it – pushing ourselves to play an exciting brand of rugby but also one that we believe is going to help us win games.
“Everyone seems to be gunning for the team that’s won the league, and whilst we expect that to happen, I think we quite like the idea that we’re going to quietly go about our business and hopefully surprise a few people again like we did last year. I think it’s going to be something that’s really positive for us, we’ve still got a big core of the group that were involved last year and we’re working hard to replicate what happened last season.”
In a pool of very talented young players, Tommy Freeman adds an enviable versatility. The 23-year-old, 6ft 2in winger/centre/fullback gives selectors at both Saints and England a dilemma, as a versatile back, but does he have a preference about where he plays?
He says: “In junior rugby I was the late bloomer, so I was the little kid that went to nine, then I was at 10. So yeah, as I’ve got bigger and faster I’ve gone out to the wing and now I’m getting bigger and wider I’m moving back in.
“Chopping and changing can be a bit difficult at times, but if they [England] want me on the wing and then I’ve got to have consistency there, if they want to play me at 13, I’ve got to train there and do all the things that I need to do there as well.”
Tommy Freeman
Tommy revealed that when he went out to New Zealand with England straight after the Premiership win, he immediately got a chest infection, which then eased off in time to play, then flared up again once he got home. “I had a chest infection in the first week, and didn’t train until about Thursday. As soon as I got back off the tour I was hit by the same thing.”
He’s keen to take learnings from his England experience, and discussed the different ways he’s used at club and country. “My position was… actually I’m not sure what position at the moment, but, uh, Centre, Wing.
“That high ball focus that we’ve got with England and how hard we go after that. Um, it’s definitely something we’re going to probably implement here [at Saints] as well. Having the strength and dominating the air. I’m pretty happy at both positions, centre and wing, to be honest. I think having both of them definitely helps me. But yeah, obviously, first and foremost, being on the pitch is the most important thing and wherever the coaches see fit.”
But playing different positions – even if you’re a professional rugby player – takes a little mental dexterity: “Sometimes you can kind of be in that mode where on the wing you’re a bit freer, in roaming mode, picking up things where you want, whereas at 13, you’re probably in a more fixed place. So, there are probably times in my head where I’m making a decision before I’ve actually got the ball, I’m going to kick it when it’s probably not on and I can just pass it.
“Ferbs can cover a few positions. He’s got his 10 and 15. We obviously complement each other a little bit. I mean if I need to go to fullback as well I can step in there. He kind of does his job and I’ll do mine and we go from there.”
So how does it feel to be back training as champions and keep the momentum when everyone basically thinks you’re great?
“There’s a balance – and I think there’s a bit of a trap there as well that you can kind of fall into. Obviously after winning the Prem you can kind of take your foot off the off the pedal a bit. But I think we’re all young and hungry enough to realise that in today’s game, each team are going to be hungrier to get the top spot. So we’ll have some targets on our back and we know that. We’ll have to just keep our heads down and carry on our business and hopefully back it up this year.”
Northampton Saints host Leinster in a pre-season game at 2pm on Saturday, September 7. Tickets and info via Northamptonsaints.co.uk
As he prepares to leave Northampton Saints to take up a new role with the Royal and Ancient Golf Club at St Andrews, Chief Executive Mark Darbon and Julia Chapman, CEO and CE in-waiting, chatted about changes both on and off the pitch. Hilary Scott reports.
“It’s a job that I’ve come to love, and actually it becomes a bit more than a job, right? it’s what our family do every weekend now,” says outgoing Chief Exec Mark Darbon. “My kids have grown up sitting in the stands here as Saint supporters. So yeah, it was a really difficult decision to leave.
“At the same time, after seven and a half years, it’s probably time for a new challenge for me and probably time for the club to have a new voice too, as we sort of go into the next phase of our growth, hopefully, building on the success.”
Darbon arrived at Franklins’ Gardens in July 2017 – before Covid and Cinch had such an impact on Northampton’s town centre ground. He oversaw the hiring of Chris Boyd, the transition to the current coaching team under Dowson, and the commercial benefits of the cinch partnership, the Tunnel Club, indoor performance centre and far better links to the women’s game via Loughborough Lightning and as a host venue for the Women’s World Cup.
One the new premiership season, which starts against Bath away on September 20, he is very upbeat: “It’s the position you want to be in, right? We’re really proud of our success last year. I think we’re optimistic for what’s to come this season. Obviously, a bit of change on the playing side, but we’ve got a very settled spine core to our side. It’s homegrown.
“I think we’re at 70 odd percent of our senior squad which has come through our Academy. That’s something we’re really proud of. So we’re optimistic and looking forward to getting into it at the same time, without the likes of Courtney [Lawes] and Lewis [Ludlam] and things are going to look and feel a little bit different.
But what of the health of Northampton Saints after the demise of other clubs, including London Irish, Wasps and Worcester?
“The clubs themselves manage their commercial performance on a local basis, with their own audience in their own venues, and we’re really proud of what we’ve been doing on that front. And then we’re working collaboratively with the league, ultimately to grow the audience for our sport. We’ve got to continue to grow the audience – grow its appeal to ensure that it works for our traditional season supporters and new younger people that we bring into the game, because only then can we monetise that proposition.
“We need the broadcasters to invest in our sport because there’s an audience that follows it. We need major corporate partners investing at league level because they want to be involved with the Premiership. And then at club level, we need to be harnessing our audience and providing a sensational experience when people come in through the gates of our club.
“And so it’s challenging to get all those pieces working. And there’s definitely, you know, a hangover from Covid, not least in the form of the loans that most of the clubs still have to pay back to DCMS [Dept for Culture, Media and Sport] for their support during the pandemic. But I’m optimistic that we can we can get there.”
Julia Chapman – who has worked alongside Darbon for more than seven years as CEO – will be taking over. She wanted to reassure fans that the business of rugby at Northampton is stable: “Any CEO of any Premiership Club has to have the finances of the club very close at heart because it’s a really big challenge. But we have never adopted a price-first approach to tackling that problem. And, you know, we can assure our fans that that isn’t changing. We’re acutely aware of the challenges that people face and the cost of living crisis, And our focus always has been, and always will be, on value for money and providing people with a great experience when they come here.”
In the light of recent England coaching departures, are there worries Borthwick might come for the best club in the prem’s coaching team?
“We’ve relatively recently extended the contracts of Dowson, of Sam Vesty, Lee Radford, James Craig and Matt Ferguson – they’re under contracts”, says Darbon. “I think we’re in a really good place with that coaching group and I mean, look, when people are saying your coaches are doing a good job, we take that as a huge compliment.”
On the Professional Game Partnership (PGP) which will see the RFU hand over more cash to clubs and an adjudicator appointed to oversee any issues between club and country, darbon is reasonably relaxed. he said: “The new PGP isn’t signed yet but I think it’s pretty close. We’re as a club pretty comfortable with what’s in there and excited by a lot of it. I think, at the same time, there are many aspects of that new deal which we’re going to learn about as we go through the next few seasons. The proof of the pudding will be in the eating.
“One of the things that comes up typically is the relationship around your key players who are England Internationals, and who can call the shots in terms of medical approaches under these new hybrid contracts.
“Our team has got good relationship into the England setup. I think it’s those relationships that will be the big driver of what plays out. But it is a bit of a new world. And so we’re going to have to watch that space carefully and make sure we work really effectively with them.
“If we’re to make headway with the challenges we face, we have to grow the audience. We’ve said that many times already, and I’m hoping that the new JMA, The Joint marketing agreement, will help us unlock some of those opportunities. And from a club, and league perspective, tapping into the large International rugby audience, trying to get them to Premiership games and hope that they fall in love with that.”
Julia added: We’re very, very thoughtful about where we spend, how we spend, and looking at what’s going to deliver a return. Making sure we’re making wise decisions when we do spend – and there are lots of examples of projects that we’ve done that with the High Performance Centre being the most recent example.”
Saints might look a little different this year, with the departure of some key players, the controversy of the rebranded badge and some new signings about to take to the hallowed Franklins' Gardens turf. Hilary Scott chatted to coaches and players about preparations for the new season.
For the coaching squad it’s business as usual – albeit with a new-ish addition in sports psychologist Oli Dixon – fresh from working with the British Olympic team. In an age when mental health has become less of a taboo for sports clubs to talk about, the team at Saints are determined that fitness isn’t just physical.
Sam Vesty and Phil Dowson
Head Coach Sam Vesty said: “It’s no big secret. We spend a lot of time training the top two inches, as much as, you know, the quads and the hamstrings. I think it’s really important that in that five weeks off, you managed to get away and get away from rugby too, and when you come back it’s a reset. You can’t just be mentally strong, it’s a skill you have to practice just like any other muscle.”
Director of Rugby Phil Dowson added: “We spent a long time last year trying to find the right psychologist and went through a lot of different ways of doing it, some say it’s not an exact science and not an easy fix. And so I spent a long time talking to different people and towards the end of last season, we had Oli Dixon come in. And he had an immediate impact. He then was off working with the British team in the Olympics.
“It covers so many different things – dealing with losing games, in terms of separating your personal life from your game life, because sometimes that can cross over and become an issue.
“We’re a young group and we’re learning as we go along and from a coaching point of view, we want to get better in terms of how that happens as well and Ollie’s been very, very helpful and has got ideas around some of the things that are really important, especially on leadership [after senior players like Waller, Lawes and Ludlam leaving]. How can we grow these young men into leaders within our environment, and Ollie’s been great at that.”
George Furbank
Fullback George Furbank is one of many Saints players who had a busy 23-24 season, not only lifting the Premiership trophy, but also on international duty for the Six Nations and then the tour of New Zealand and Japan with England.
“I’d say off-season is a lot about headspace,” he said. “I was I felt pretty mentally fatigued. It had been a pretty much 13-month season, from the start of pre-season going through to finishing the tour. So I definitely needed a decent bit mental recovery from that off-season and just getting away from rugby entirely, which is good.
“And now I feel fresh and ready to go again. Preseason is a little bit about mental recovery and also mental learnings. We’ve got a sports psychologist who’s going to be with us a lot more now. So hopefully he’s going to help in terms of the performance side of things. But it’s also about getting getting your body back up to scratch again, and we’re ready to go.”
After the success of the Premiership win and then going straight out to New Zealand on tour with England, Furbank says it’s been a whirlwind of a year, and there wasn’t much time to process it all, along with the the departure of big players like Lawes.
“I feel like we took a big onus on ourselves to become more player-led – that’s something we spoke about at the start of the season, rather than being sort of spoon-fed by the coaches, which we had a bit before. Other players like Curtis Langdon and Sam Graham are stepping up, there are more voices now coming into that role as well. It’s a good place to be.
Furbank will certainly be in the running to take on captaincy roles since the departure of Alex Waller, Lawes and Lewis Ludlam, for so long the experienced club leaders. And he’s also got a 100 percent win record as captain: “Yeah. I love it. I think it probably just gives me an extra hunger and extra desire. When you’re captain, the boys look to you in your actions, occasionally words., but more your actions. It gave me an extra hunger and desire to be playing at the top of my game. You never want to be stagnant. But yeah, nothing massive is going to change.
“Like you saw last last preseason, a lot of us put on a bit of weight, and that helped massively. I struggle to keep weight on during the off-season. Some boys balloon, some boys lose a bit of weight. I’ve probably got a kilo so to put on, but I think once I get back into the swing of things I’ll be back to where I was.”
“Last season I just felt like I was back to where I wanted to be playing, and it was probably actually the first time I thought I deserved to be playing for England. Before then, I was happy to be in the squad, but I didn’t necessarily think I deserved to be there. This was like the first time I felt I was in good enough form.
“At Saints we’ve got an unbelievable core fan group here. But we want to keep filling the stadium and the more you can fill it with youngsters, we want to we want to leave a legacy at this club and you need to bring those young guys through as fans, and hopefully get more and more people involved in rugby either as fans or as players.”
Dowson, Vesty and defence coach Lee Radford were emphatic about continuing to build a squad that has its roots in a homegrown, hearty rugby compost. Around 70 percent of the players at the Cinch stadium have come through the academy system, and the squad enjoys events like cricket matches. Dowson wants the squad to feel part of the saints family, learning the history of the club, even taking the cup to the nearby St James Church where it all began.
He said: “Time is so short this year, it’s been quite a compressed pre-season. So I just said, you know the club was founded at that church, St James, down the road. I took the trophy in there. We did a meeting there just for a bit of a change, just where the club was founded.”
While the departures, the club badge change and a new eight year-Professional Game Partnership (PGP) with the RFU – which will see new contracts and an ‘adjudicator’ for decisions between club and country – the new season will have as much going on off the pitch as on it:
The old badge will be painted over next week
Dowson is keen to keep the momentum for Saints, even though changes make the squad look very different this year. He said: “Courtney’s an absolute rock and roll star, he really is a club legend. And clearly his experience, and his know-how and how the lads looked at him in certain moments will be missed. But I think little by little we’re picking up some of that experience and other players are taking on some of his personality under pressure, very cool and calm. I think people like Furbank, Dingers [Fraser Dingwall] and Alex Coles, have picked up huge amounts from just being around him in those games.”
The open top celebration last season was a highlight for the team, says Dowson. “We were so pleased that the players got to experience that in a rugby town, and to see the whole town come out for us and enjoy those celebrations. And then you have to quickly move on because it’s yesterday’s news. Our whole ethos around the club is development, and getting better, and we’re going to have to continue to do that…tactical and technically we have to evolve because, you know, we have a target on our backs now as well.”
The Nenequirer will be bringing you more interviews this week, with Alex Mitchell, Fin Smith, Tommy Freeman and outgoing CE Mark Darbon and his replacement Julia Chapman.
Strictly champion Joanne Clifton and CBeebies star Andy Day to lead the cast of Royal & Derngate’s pantomime Cinderella
Strictly champion and musical theatre star Joanne Clifton and CBeebies favourite Andy Day will head up the cast for this year’s spectacular Christmas pantomime Cinderella at Northampton’s Royal & Derngate.
Rising to fame as a professional dancer on Strictly Come Dancing, where she lifted the glitterball with her celebrity partner Ore Oduba in 2016, the world champion ballroom dancer Joanne Clifton has more recently been seen in top musical theatre productions, including The Addams Family, The Rocky Horror Show and Flashdance. Currently touring as Princess Fiona in Shrek The Musical, Joanne will be casting her magic as the Fairy Godmother this Christmas.
Taking the role of Dandini is one of CBeebies’ most popular personalities, Andy Day. His many shows for the channel include the BAFTA-nominated Andy’s Wild Adventures and Andy’s Dinosaur Adventures, and he even has his own pop band Andy and the Oddsocks. He has appeared for many years in CBeebies’ annual televised pantomime in addition to starring in panto at theatres around the country.
Joining the cast as Ugly Sisters are Gordon Cooper and Matt Daines, both seasoned pantomime performers, most recently appearing together at the Octagon Theatre in Yeovil last Christmas.
Building on the success of last year’s smash hit Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and 2022’s Jack and the Beanstalk, Royal & Derngate are pleased to be continuing their partnership with award-winning pantomime producers Evolution Productions. A family business, run by husband and wife Paul Hendy and Emily Wood, Evolution are four-time winners of Pantomime of The Year in the Great British Pantomime Awards.
Jo Gordon, Chief Executive at Royal & Derngate, said: “We’re delighted to be able to announce such a brilliant cast, and look forward welcoming audiences into the theatre for what promises to be a fantastic festive outing. Christmas is such a special time of year, and it’s always a joy to see so many children introduced to the magic of theatre for the very first time.
“For me as a mum, Andy Day was a firm fixture in my house for many years, bringing such joy to my two kids. So to see him bring his bags of fun and skill to the stage alongside Joanne, who continues to wow people across the country with her musical theatre performances, will be such a treat.”
Cinderella will run from Friday 6 to Tuesday 31 December 2024. For more information and to book tickets, go to http://www.royalandderngate.co.uk or call Box Office on 01604 624811.
Herman Melville’s tale of a man’s obsession starts its national tour as far from the sea as possible
It might be one of the most well-known stories we’ve never read, and here’s yet another adaptation of Moby Dick, a story written at the height of the whaling industry in the early years of Queen Victoria’s reign, where slavery was still legal, lights needed whale oil to burn and the fate of a species was secondary to profit and enterprise. An opportunity then for a modern adaptation then, looking at the effect of man’s industry on the environment and the attitudes to human labour?
Guy Rhys as Captain Ahab – all photos by Manuel Harlan
My 16-year-old, theatre-mad daughter was my plus-one for the press night, a useful sounding block for a seasoned reviewer. Had she heard of Moby Dick? Nope. The famous opening line “Call me Ishmael” as our narrator (a sensitive performance by Mark Arends) relays his story of adventures on a whaling ship? Nope. OK, well this might be an education then.
The set and staging to portray a ship chasing the lure and lucre of whaling is ably tackled by designer Kate Bunce, whose set consists of scaffolding poles which are adapted throughout the performance from a quayside, to an inn, to a ship, particularly clever as the cast move boards to create a two tier ship’s deck and prow. The cast – with talented musicians – sing and play sea shanties to add context and aid the movement of staging. This works to a point – you can’t hear the lyrics very clearly – but when the singing stops as the whalers chase their prey the music, particularly the drumming – adds a heart-racing element to the violence of the action which you never actually see.
Syreeta Kumar (Manx), Tom Swale (Queequeg) Hannah Emanuel (Starbuck) and other cast members in Moby Dick
If you’re unfamiliar with the story, we join naïve Ishmael as a literal fish-out-of water trying to join a whaling ship to broaden his schoolteacher horizons. There’s a flash of humour in his interactions with soon-to-be shipmate Queequeg, a gentle South Sea island harpooner ‘savage’ played mesmerisingly by Tom Swale.
It takes too long in the first half (40 minutes) to actually get to the boat – the Pequod – where we eventually meet the already mad Captain Ahab (Guy Rhys), whose notoriety has been repeatedly flagged before we see him, appearing on the deck like a one-legged Eric Cantona about to give his ‘seagulls following the trawler’ speech. Ahab’s obsession with finding the albino Moby Dick who bit off his leg in a previous encounter is starkly contrasted by the (sometimes too) softly spoken first-mate Starbuck (Hannah Emanuel), who just wants to pragmatically get as much whale meat and oil from the voyage as possible before returning safely to their families on shore.
Act one ends with a successful catch – a random whale is brutally harpooned and red tickertape and clever lighting illustrate the kill – subsequently the crew haul and dismember the creature for the sum of its parts. Huge barrels of fish bits are lugged around the set (I only just caught the labels on each barrel to signify different types of whale as they were carting them off). Daughter was confused, was that Moby Dick they caught? The second half might be rather redundant if it had been.
Mark Arends (Ishmael), Guy Rhys (Captain Ahab) and William Pennington (Stubb)
Act two sees meetings (or ‘gams’) with other boats – The Rachel with its desperate captain (whose pleas to help find a missing son are rejected by Ahab) – and the Samuel Enderby, whose captain Boomer has also lost a limb to the white whale but who bears it no ill-will, unlike Ahab who continues on his selfish and dangerous quest to find and kill Moby Dick despite the protestations of Starbuck and the clear risk to the crew.
When the Pequod eventually finds the giant whale and the action comes to a crescendo, (spoilers), only Ishmael survives, picked up by the Rachel after floating in a coffin made for Queequeg (which is never really explained but is a clear plotline in the book).
There’s no doubt this is an incredibly skillful company of actors and musicians (the award-winning Simple8) led by Royal & Derngate’s competent and inventive new artistic director Jessie Jones. But adaptor Sebastian Armesto’s script seemed a little uneven in its pacing and the opportunity to connect such a vivid story of man’s destruction of, and by, nature more deeply seems to have been missed. Some of the main themes (faith, loyalty, class) are ignored and characters in the book (notably the slave boy Pip) are missing and those we do see are left underdeveloped. Too many sea shanties and a lack of depth of character made this, for me, miss the boat, but hopefully it will develop and find its (sea) legs during its national tour.
Moby Dick runs at Royal & Derngate until Saturday April 13, then is on tour (including a week in the Isles of Scilly) ending at the Oxford Playhouse on June 22. For tickets visit Royal and Derngate Box office or Simple8 for full tour details.
Northampton Saints move 7 points clear at the top of the table after a precious 41-30 bonus point win against Saracens under the Friday night lights.
The Londoners arrived at Franklin’s Gardens fully loaded with international stars and were the bookies favourites after Saints’ Bristol wobble and Sarries’ demolition of Quins the week before.
However another imperious display from Player of the Match Fin Smith coupled with some outstanding performances throughout the team (take a bow Langdon, James and Sleighthome) saw Saints safely home against a late Sarries fightback.
Saints started the fastest, Alex Coles strolling over to finish off some persistent pressure on the Saracens line. Fin Smith converted, 7-0.
Things would get better for the home side James Ramm scoring despite a lengthy TMO check. Smith added the extras in front of the posts again. 14-0.
Smith was at it again a minute later, slotting a penalty to extend the lead to 17.
Saracens would then receive a gift off the restart, Theo McFarland charging down a kick to score. Owen Farrell added the two, 17-7.
Momentum swung to the visitors after a raft of penalties, Farrell once again making the most of it to bring the game back to a one-score game. 17-10.
Saints would have to work hard to make sure they went into the break ahead, Nick Tompkins amongst a number of Saracens players coming close to going over the whitewash.
Saracens hit back straight after the break, Farrell slotting another penalty from under the posts after the hosts were deemed to not roll away at the breakdown. 17-13.
James Ramm would score his second of the game after a nifty Saints breakaway, Smith added the extras. 24-13
Saracens were gifted their second try of the game, Ben Earl charging down another box kick to go in under the posts to the delight of the travelling support, Farrell converted 24-20.
Smith extended the lead back out to 7 points with a penalty before Tommy Freeman continued his fine scoring form notching Saints bonus-point try. 34-20.
The game would be put to bed when Saints extended their lead to 21 points, Ollie Sleightholme picking up a loose pass before racing away to score. Converted yet again. 41-20.
The visitors ended the game with a flurry of tries both coming from Alex Lewington, enough to rescue a try bonus, but would miss out on the losing bonus point with both kicks missed. 41-30
Northampton now look ahead to Munster in the round-of-16 of the Investec Champions Cup at the Gardens next weekend.
Northampton Saints director of rugby Phil Dowson says there is “no need for added motivation” as they welcome reigning Gallagher Premiership champions Saracens tonight (7:45 pm March 29).
He said: “It’s always a mental test, it was a mental test going to Bristol, going to Munster, going anywhere it’s a mental test.
“We talk about it when we play in Europe, we talk about it when we then play in the Prem it’s a big challenge to find out where you’re at.
“They are all big tests, and this one is a big one for us.”
Dowson believed that preparation wasn’t quite right after last week’s trip to Bristol but feels like Saracens is a good test to get back on track.
He said: “We need to see how we react to last week’s result as a group and also see where we are as a team.
“Moving into the run-in, I’m excited about that and you want to be challenged by the best teams and they are certainly one of those.”
Fraser Dingwall battles for the ball (Archive pic by Dave Ikin)
Fresh from his return from Six Nations duty with England, Fraser Dingwall was open about the need for a response from the team this week.
He said: “The nature of the loss on Friday is normally teams then give a response.
“You mentioned we are playing the reigning champions at home on Friday night and also it being the Saints Foundation game which is very important to us with the charity and everything they do.
“In terms of occasions, it doesn’t get much bigger for us.”
The centre also reflected on his time with England.
He said: “I look back on it really positively, especially in the early stages.
“Even when I wasn’t involved it was great to be part of a group trying to evolve and go to a different place than rugby and kick on.
“I am very honoured and very fortunate for the chance and be a part of the bigger picture.”
Dingwall also knows no love will be lost once that whistle goes at the Gardens on Friday night.
He said: “Once you come back to your club it becomes your focus.
“There won’t be any issues with who you are competing against but no doubt on game day you know who you are competing for.”
The Saints remain top of the domestic table despite a difficult 52-21 defeat away at Bristol Bears last time out.
Despite hopes that last week’s result was a blip, Dowson understands that his side can’t afford to get complacent in the run into the end of the season.
He said: “I don’t think it is ever a case of the players not trying or not believing in what we are doing.
“It was more of a case of us not quite getting the preparation right, we haven’t done this block right.
“It’s that we don’t want to get it wrong again.”
15 James Ramm 14 Tommy Freeman 13 Burger Odendaal 12 Fraser Dingwall 11 Ollie Sleightholme 10 Fin Smith 9 Tom James
1 Emmanuel Iyogun 2 Curtis Langdon 3 Trevor Davison 4 Alex Moon 5 Alex Coles 6 Courtney Lawes (c) 7 Tom Pearson 8 Juarno Augustus
Replacements: 16 Sam Matavesi 17 Alex Waller 18 Ed Prowse 19 Temo Mayanavanua 20 Lewis Ludlam 21 Sam Graham 22 Archie McParland 23 Tom Litchfield
Hilary Scott reflects on Labour’s second by-election win in the early hours of February 16and how the media coverage really workswhen you cast your vote
Newly elected Labour MP for Wellingborough Gen Kitchen, and Helen Harrison, ousted MP Peter Bone’s girlfriend and Tory candidate who lost the party’s large majority
Election counts are a funny old job as a reporter. You know it’s going to be a very long night when a General Election is eventually called, ending with a ten minute adrenalin hit in the wee small hours – presuming there’s no dreaded re-count. When it’s a by-election, it’s the same, only with far more journalists in one place. This was how it panned out at the Wellingborough by-election in the early hours of February 16.
Your research and ability to remember numbers and faces is pretty important – nothing gets the adrenaline going like having to quote the percentage turnout at the last election (64.27% in 2019), the previous electorate size (80,765) and majority of the now ousted and somewhat notorious Peter Bone (18,540), while also looking for the faces of the candidates (11 of them in this case) who all show up to the count at different times.
While us local hacks largely have the generic leisure centre-based counting halls to ourselves on General Election night, save for a couple of agency stringers, a by-election sees ‘Network’ – the London-based national broadcasters – swarm out into the provinces.
It’s a mixture of getting multiple forms of communication done these days – no longer just getting some background colour for a piece that might be published in the next day’s paper or the next morning’s bulletin. The internet and social media have changed all that. You need candidate arrival quotes, pictures of ballot boxes coming in from various polling stations, pieces to camera every hour or more with ‘updates’, live two-ways with candidates or their team members, pre-records and Tiktoks and live blogs and Twitter (X) threads – not quote so much time for catching up with your fellow journos or campaigners you may not have seen since the last election.
The excellent Northants Telegraph team of four staff members, all of whom know the county and people better than anyone, were live blogging, Tweeting, writing online stories, getting quotes and pictures and liaising with contacts they’d built up over years. Likewise the independent Sarah Ward of subscription newsletter publication NNjournal was working her contacts and getting to the heart of Local Issues for Local People.
BBC Political editor Chris Mason and Sky’s Chief Political correspondent Jon Craig
BBC Political Editor Chris Mason and Sky’s John Craig were the big beasts up from the big smoke and the regional press have to jostle to ensure they are in the front of the scrum for the big reveal. Mason had to leave before the declaration of results as he was due on air first thing but Craig was there until the end, kicked out with the rest of us at 5am as the Kettering Leisure Village closed its doors with most reporters still editing and filing copy.
There’s a lot of camaraderie behind the scenes and at this count some disquiet about a ‘pen’ that had been set up for journalists to stand in, a bit like sports’ mixed zones, which one determined hack decided to test by simply walking out into the hall to interview party representatives as we usually do. Back in your pen woman! (the pen was then moved closer to the entrance but candidates were kept safe from us by the nylon straps and poles more commonly found in a Post Office queue. Phew.
A note: we get warned A LOT about where and when we can report. We are trained journalists do know how to cover a count. We abide by impartiality rules and know we can’t show the ballot papers (although let’s face it, they are all anonymous really) and we don’t detail anything about results until the Returning Officer (in this case High Sheriff Milan Shah) gets on the podium with the final tariff. We KNOW we can’t ‘do anything that interferes with the integrity of the poll‘. We’re not influencers, we’re trained journalists.
Of course, there are always rumours – early doors there was talk of a Labour landslide. Others said it was going to be too close to calls and a recount was on the cards. There was also a man in a giant hat and a white coat called Nick the Flying Brick claiming he was going to abolish gravity. Another bloke was walking about the counting hall with a creepy ventriloquist’s dummy. The far right candidates must have done a weeks’ worth of their step counts just bimbling around the hall for hours.
By the wee small hours there was talk of a Labour landslide again. Reform’s Richard Tice turned up and made a lot of clams about how their candidate, former Tory donor Ben Habib was going to annihilate the Tory vote – the Conservatives still beat them by almost 3,500 votes. Labour’s Gen Kitchen got over 13,000.
Tory Helen Harrison, Nick the Brick, Independents Kev Watts and Marion Turner-Hawes
Elections are performative for a lot of people. It gives them a misplaced sense of importance. They get a special entrance, a different queue, they’re allowed to hang out with people who might actually have power and influence now or in future. Journalists ask for their opinions and take their photos. They cease to be ‘normal’ folk for a while, even if they do, as Britain First’s Alex Merola found out, find fewer than 500 people cast their ballot for you. One candidate, the absent Ankit Love Jknpp Jay Mala Post-Mortem, got 18 votes. There’s an awful lot of hyperbole – ‘the people’ and ‘the public mood’ get quoted a lot, even though their only presence at the count is in the little pieces of white paper they stuck a cross in, which is the actual reason we’re all there.
Then there are the principled local candidates, independents like the former Green party candidate Marion Turner-Hawes and former Northants police office and parish councillor Kev Watts, along with the Green Party’s Bozeat-based Will Morris – who genuinely stick their heads above the parapet and endure the circus because they want to make a difference to the actual constituency. They hand over their £500 deposit knowing they probably won’t get it back (you need 5% of the overall vote to not ‘lose your deposit’).
Chesterfield MP Toby Perkins who campaigned for Wellingborough Labour candidate Gen Kitchen faces the cameras
They know it’s unlikely they will get anywhere near the Big Party candidates who may not even be from the area, but have been parachuted in to make a more general appeal to a wider electorate (see Ben Habib from the Reform Party, formerly the Brexit party, started by Farage after he dumped his UKIPers and to date with no electoral success.)
Reform’s Habib wasn’t even in the right town on the morning of the election, broadcasting from nearby Irthlingborough which is in a different constituency. But to listen to his gang of election supporters, you’d think he was the Second Coming, despite actually coming in third.
Perhaps surprising was the result for the Liberal Democrat candidate Ana Savage Gunn, a well-respected former local police officer who retrained in social care during the pandemic and who might usually expect to be at least in third place, but pushed into fourth with 1422 votes. The moderate Lib Dems might be expected to gain from the electorate’s dislike of the two major parties, but not here.
Will Morris from the Green party,Lib Dem Ana Savage Gunn and Labour’s Jen Kitchen
The unsung heroes of any election are the vote counters – those anonymous council and bank staff who you see flipping expertly through piles of ballot papers with those blue rubber thimbles at super speeds – clicking and stacking and shuffling each precious ballot, careful not to make a single error which could lead to an expensive and soul destroying recount.
Thankfully only one small recount was needed of a rogue box, at around 3am, when the PA system also needed fixing as we were all temporarily deafened by a loud blast of high-pitched feedback. Lots of standing around in our pens was followed by a rush to the stage as press and party supporters were released forward in turn for the result. The BBC, ITV and Sky were running live feeds from the hall, radio reporters were on hold to studios, the rest of us shooting and broadcasting on phones – instructions handed out as to who would be chasing the successful – and unsuccessful – candidates for reaction quotes and shots after the result. No longer the days of simply noting down the result with pen and paper now every scrap of life can be sent in real time.
In the end, we got our result at about 4am, we watched the relief for Labour’s Genevieve ‘Gen’ Kitchen, who had the added pressure of being the favourite in the run-up, even abandoning her honeymoon in Suffolk when Bone was ousted to start her campaign.
Conservative Helen Harrison make a rapid exit after the result
The Tory candidate Helen Harrison, completely unsupported by the national Conservative Party, had had to drag the ghost of her ‘boyfriend’ – the aforementioned disgraced former MP Peter Bone – around on the campaign. After losing the Tories enormous majority, she left the hall chased by the press in the glare of the TV cameras into the rainy early morning. The indignity of it all was visible on the faces of the old-school local Tory councillors (most of them apparently married to each other) who had at least turned up to support her.
The day after the successful result for Labour might have seen Gen Kitchen and husband Joe catch a lie-in, but no, the new member of parliament for Wellingborough had a press call at 11.30am and the following week saw her getting to grips with her new job, new office and a whole heap of urgent tasks for a patch that has been without an MP since Bone’s removal.
While the candidates disappeared into the 5am darkness, the hacks trying urgently to file final updates from the leisure centre were unceremoniously booted out into the rain to finish their reports in the nearest open fast-food restaurants which had working wifi. Some may have been lucky to get any sleep before having to cover the morning after the night before.
And this will all be happening again, in by-elections like Rochdale this week and possibly in Blackpool South, after yet another Tory MP was found to have misbehaved.
We are very much due a full General Election, the first since December 2019, (which was pre-Covid, pre-Partygate and cost-of-living crisis), when ALL candidates across the country will be going through the election night counts from leisure centres, just as they did in Wellingborough and Kingswood, Gloucestershire two weeks ago.
So even if you still feel confused and exhausted by the politics of the country, make sure you register to vote, and don’t forget your ID. It’s the only way to truly make your views on your community and the wider country count. Too many citizens of the world today don’t have that luxury.
