Amateur dramatics group just keeps getting better

Photo: Martin Ogden

Sam Maurice and Sophie Lord - both stunning in Parade

PARADE

George Lawton Hall, Mossley, to Saturday

JUST when I thought Mossley AODS had pretty much hit a peak, they have gone and set a new peak with this stunning production.

I've been trying to decide if this is the most thrilling, on-the-money amateur production I've yet seen, and I'm finding it very hard to come up with a better one that doesn't also have this company's name above the title.

Parade is the true story of Brooklyn Jew Leo Frank, the manager of a pencil factory in Atlanta in 1913-14.

When 13-year-old worker Mary Phagan is found dead (murdered 103 years ago today), suspicion falls, with anti-Semitism at its core, on Frank.

A black watchman is discounted early on, placing the entire focus of the murder investigation on Frank, almost certainly innocent but swiftly brought to trial with the help of coached testimony and bought witnesses - even though a more likely culprit is one of the witnesses against him.

The show is intense and doesn't let up, never feeling the need to interject lightness or comedy. Which is not to say it is all bleakness and despair.

Range

Indeed the musical, written in the late nineties and seen in the UK only a handful of times, is packed with lush tunes, powerful anthems, jazz, blues and a range of musical styles; even a chain gang chant.

The book is admittedly a little sketchy about some elements of the case, but it tells enough of the story to elicit the sympathy we must feel for Frank - who starts the evening rather cold, working on the public holiday of the Georgia Memorial Day Parade, but whose relationship with his wife Lucille grows warmer as it is tested.

The real pleasure here is in the overall package: strong direction from James Schofield, brilliant playing from the band under MD Paul Firth, a simple, evocative set, good choreography and an extraordinarily high standard of singing from the likes of Jon Crebbin as anti-Semitic publisher Tom Watson, and by Sophie Lord (Lucille) and Sam Maurice as Leo - not forgetting the entire 28-strong company.

Though marginally unfair to pull them out of a superb ensemble, Maurice and Lord are completely convincing as the doomed couple, while detail and committed singing are evident everywhere else in this thrilling production.

Very highly recommended; one of my best nights in any theatre all year.