Rita, Sue and Bob Too at the Oxford Playhouse

Out of Joint is one of the best touring companies, and although Rita, Sue and Bob Too is an "important play", I'm surprised that they thought it would attract even the firmest fan of live theatre. So when the Oxford Playhouse is less than half full, I was not surprised.

The play is important in that it reflects the state of northern working class Britain at the beginning of the 1980's. The Bradford estate is there for all to see in the run down tower block and on the backcloth of the hills above. Andrea Dunbar lived there and wrote the play at nineteen. So the language and story are pretty basic and uncomfortable. We can pretend this is the eighties and things have changed. But have they really? Alcohol and cigarettes have been replaced by drugs, so maybe now it's worse. 

Fortunately, there is humour and emotion in the friendship of fifteen year old Rita and Sue played by the excellent Taj Atwal and Gemma Dobson. The older married Bob is also well performed by James Atherton. This is a very short play, only a little over 75 minutes. Director Kate Wasserberg has pulled no punches and the burst of songs from the eighties between scenes is very clever.

However, plays are so rarely performed in the provinces, and the failure to attract audiences will not improve matters. Thank goodness for London productions being shown live in cinemas. The National Theatre's "Follies" up next.