{"id":839781,"date":"2026-03-21T03:02:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T03:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/839781\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T03:02:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T03:02:15","slug":"living-tanya-moiseiwitsch-playhouse-sheffield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/839781\/","title":{"rendered":"Living – Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse, Sheffield"},"content":{"rendered":"

Writer: Leo Butler<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director: Abigail Graham<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sheffield\u2019s award-winning Leo Butler\u2019s new play Living is an ambitious play that attempts to cover the lives of an ordinary family over five decades. Kathy and Brian as newlyweds move into a house on Burngreave Road in Pitsmoor. They go on to have a son and a daughter. Times change and so do some of their attitudes but their deep-rooted premise is love and family connection.<\/p>\n

The play starts in 1969 and goes up to the present day, through Thatcherism, Blairism, Covid and to Trump. The television is ever present and serves as a vehicle for announcing the highlights of the largely domestic politics and national events that shape people\u2019s lives. It briefly touches on a myriad of issues over the decades. In the style of Ken Loach, the stresses and strains of life are explored. There are happy times, challenging times and sad times. Their children become adults and have their own issues as the family navigates its way through relationships, employment, adolescence, aging and frailty.<\/p>\n

Living could be a trip down memory lane for older members of the audience with references to things like decimalisation and Cherry B, or a lesson and insight into what has shaped the present-day. Issues such as racism, feminism, drugs, new technology, smoking, alcohol, sex are all raised over this two act, three-hour play.<\/p>\n

There is plenty to laugh at, for example the frustration of trying to work that \u2018new device\u2019, the remote control for the VHS recorder \u2013 the wonders of now increasingly obsolete CDs.<\/p>\n

Hard working Kathy (Liz White) is the lynch pin of the family. White is superb in her depiction of the young Kathy through to an ageing woman. Her vitality and compassion and connection with her husband Brian (Kenny Doughty) makes this ordinary woman an exceptional character. White and Doughty have been well cast and are believable in their roles.<\/p>\n

The dialogue is fast paced, and there are a lot of arguments and fury. At times some of the dialogue was lost possibly due to the hard surface of the high blockboard walls of the set affecting the acoustics. The passing years are projected on the walls, often featuring December when the family reunites, but possibly some brief captions or sign posts projected on the walls would help identify the major events.<\/p>\n

It is hard to reconcile why the socialist values of Brian shifted so radically to become a suit wearing executive. It might be said that the role of youth is to fight against one\u2019s parents but in parts of the play it is hard to understand why there is so much anger directed towards the mother, Kathy.<\/p>\n

Music punctuates the passage of time and is a wonderful commentary of the passing decades. Costumes also reflect the changing times.<\/p>\n

The Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse is an intimate space that champions local and fringe theatre. This play is not for the faint hearted \u2013 there is swearing, sex, arguments and sadness. Life is never straight forward and Living is a good reflection on life. It is about ordinary people, not the celebrity superstars so often in the media. It is a great play for local people.<\/p>\n

Runs until Saturday 4th April 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\t\t\tThe Review Hubs Star Rating <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Writer: Leo Butler Director: Abigail Graham Sheffield\u2019s award-winning Leo Butler\u2019s new play Living is an ambitious play that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":839782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8817],"tags":[213467,748,393,4884,130801,213470,213471,3391,213472,1620,74639,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-839781","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sheffield","8":"tag-abigail-graham","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-ken-loach","13":"tag-kenny-doughty","14":"tag-leo-butler","15":"tag-living","16":"tag-liz-white","17":"tag-sheffield","18":"tag-tanya-moiseiwitsch-playhouse","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116264943354247176","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/839782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}