Pics: Alex Harvey Brown
Years of Sunlight By Michael McLean
Creatives
Directed by Amelia Sears
Design Polly Sullivan
Lighting Joshua Pharo
Sound Elena Pena
Cast
John Biggins
Bryan Dick
Miranda Foster
Mark Rice-Oxley
“I told you it’d happen. In this town. It’d come to fruition. It’s like rivers of blood with Scousers”
Skelmersdale, Lancashire. Haunted by memories of his closest friend Emlyn, Paul returns to the ashes of his childhood home in a Liverpool overspill estate and implores his mother to leave it all behind. Envisaged by the government as “social utopias” in the 1960s, towns like Skelmersdale promised visionary housing and opportunities for thousands of Liverpudlians uprooted from their overcrowded city.
Traversing a 30-year friendship, Years of Sunlight is a haunting cry for those left feeling shipwrecked from their old communities and abandoned by the post-industrial political system.
“evocative, grubbily poetic play” ★★★★ Henry Hitchins, Evening Standard
“impressively human tale of friendship and addiction” ★★★★ The Reviews Hub
“a searing depiction of a close but crumbling friendship.” ★★★★ London Pub Theatres
“a touching portrait of a lifelong friendship” WhatsOnStage
“Miranda Foster is outstanding as Hazel” Michael Billington, The Guardian
“Written with subtlety, grace and originality… the new writing year has begun.” Aleks Sierz
★★★★ TheatreFullStop, The London Economic, Theatre Bubble