Not quite what we're expecting

Photo: Gareth Rawbone

Chloe McLaughlin as Kayla in Borderland

BORDERLAND
Oldham Coliseum Studio, final performance tonight (March 10)

If Public Burning Theatre is guilty of anything it is perhaps hyperbole; not in the show but in the flyers.

"When Disney-loving Aminah meets blood-soaked Kayla neither expects to bring a community to its knees... A provocative look at modern-day segregation, race, class sexuality and power which will challenge liberal and traditional values alike.

Well, not really, not nearly.

James Harker - the writer of 2015's award-winning Gary, A Love Story, has actually produced a - well, I hesitate to call it sweet - 60-minute tale of two girls who become unlikely Oldham school friends around the time of the Oldham riots; unlikely because one, Kayla (Chloe McLaughlin) is a boxer, a loner and school hard-case, and the other (Lucky Sanghera) a naive muslim girl.

The two mid-teenagers become close, fool around sexually (you can't put it more strongly than that), and mainly provide friendship for each other, since both are outsiders. But when Kayla gets a little too emotionally wrought, the other breaks away, ashamed of her feelings.

That's pretty much it, though Kayla's uncle Terry, her coach (Rob Ward) is more than just a closet racist and treats Aminah badly, leading the girl to run to her Imam for guidance.

So while claims of race war are perhaps more than a bit overdone, Harker and director Danielle McIlven do build the relationship nicely and the three actors are pretty convincing, given they have only an hour to convince us.

The relationship, especially on Kayla's side, has a sort of lost, desperate reality to it that charms and saddens at the same time, and the show is worth seeing for this alone. But the show is now touring the North West and isn't scheduled to return anywhere close.

I'm not at all sure what the point is: teenage girls go a bit overboard emotionally? Race and class really don't matter that much when you like someone? Ironically, "Meat Pie Sausage Roll" in the Coliseum main theatre is proving that same point at the moment, albeit not quite as effectively.