This Town review | Powerful journey into the heart of a Midlands community

This Town is an epic narrative poem written and performed by Rory Aaron which explores the intricate and desperate lives of men and women living in a small Midlands town. Set in a place that could be any working-class constituency north of Luton, this epic poem brings to life a varied and three-dimensional world in which its characters play out crucial moments. As separate stories play out in tandem, they build a larger world and succeed in telling a heartfelt, moving story about a town community so familiar to many of us: Liam is an Iraqi war veteran trying to find his place back home; Dean and Sarah muddle on through a youthful romance in which Dean fails to read the sign; and Joe is a young lad who boxes to compensate for the utter poverty of opportunity, preparing intensely for his next big fight.

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Aaron is joined by Kate Ireland, whose performance wonderfully balances vigour and vulnerability. They both share the role of poetic narrator, deftly bouncing between characters to create an energetic world, seducing the audience from the opening monologues. Utilising a single rotating set piece, Aaron and Ireland twist and turn the stage into a pub, a classroom, a boxing gym, and a back alley. The dialogue quickly shifts between characters, blending punchy and lyrical spoken word with naturalistic storytelling and colloquial dialogue, dappled with images reminiscent of Dylan Thomas. This Town excellently treads that tricky balance between performance poetry and straight drama. Despite demanding a keen ear to follow, potentially causing the less attentive theatregoer to lose track of the show, the movement of the central rotating device signposts the story, helping to distinguish character, dialogue, and place shifts.

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Working with Kings College London’s Military Health Department, Aaron ran workshops with Iraqi war veterans to construct Liam’s character. This level of care and detail was evident in Liam’s journey, whose battle with PTSD and imposter syndrome reaped some of the play’s most powerful moments, acted expertly by the thoroughly studious Aaron. The representation of Liam’s struggles was greatly enhanced by the thoughtful movement direction from Chris Brown, hitting the right tone and helping to materialise a purely internal conflict by nature. This work takes on various experiences and lends voice to elements of English life neglected by the arts and theatre. I was left saddened and intrigued about who these men were, how many I possibly knew, and how I could better understand their struggles. Rory Aaron proves by This Town that their harrowing experiences and complex stories deserve to be told and understood.

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This Town is showing at Manchester’s Contact Theatre from 22 – 31 March and at Derby Theatre on 1st April. You can also purchase And within these cobbled streets, the original play, online at Verve Press.