The City Adventurers headed off to the Gillian Lynne Theatre to see Standing At The Sky’s Edge. This show won the 2023 Olivier Award for Best New Musical, the UK Theatre Award for Best Musical Production and was the winner of the South Bank Sky Arts Award. It received eight Olivier Awards while playing at the National Theatre, winning the award for Best New Musical and Best Original Score or New Orchestration.
So we were anticipating a great performance. We were not disappointed.
The Story
Poppy would like to start a new life away from her old one in London. Joy and Jimmy want to spend the rest of their days together and Rose and Harry yearn for a new life, one that they’ve been promised. Their stories unfold in a castle built of streets in the sky.
Standing at the Sky’s Edge charts the hopes and dreams of three generations over the course of six tumultuous decades. As it does so, it weaves its narrative through a history of modern Britain and a spectrum of human emotion.
Park Hill – background
This production begins in 1961 with a couple moving into their new flat with dreams of their new lives; starting a family getting promoted to the youngest foreman in the steel industry etc. Their dream home is Park Hill, a housing estate in Sheffield, built between 1957 and 1961. This development offered the luxury of private bathrooms and efficient heating, but soon problems with these ‘Streets in the sky’ began to surface.
By the 1980’s, when family two move into the flat, the popularity of living in a tower block is waning.
However, in 1998, Park Hill became Grade II* listed, making it the largest listed building in Europe. A part-privatisation scheme in partnership with English Heritage to turn the flats into upmarket apartments, business units and social housing began soon after. And this is when the flat gets its next tenant.
Review
The musical tells the story of three families over sixty years living in Park Hill, a council housing estate in Sheffield.
Rather than moving the scenery for each time zone, the set remains static and serves for the same flat, and the estate around it, over time. It is amazing to see the actors using the same space, often at the same time, to show parallel incidents and occurrences.
It has a very big cast. Sometimes 26 actors on stage at one time. Their movements are choreographed to perfection.
There is a warning that this show is unsuitable for children as it contains adult themes and strong language, including some scenes depicting physical violence, alcohol abuse, and death. I hadn’t noticed the warning and was surprised at the gut-wrenching emotion the production produced at one point. (luckily managed to hold back the ugly crying).
This is a powerful production that is definitely worth seeing.
Tickets available from https://www.skysedgemusical.com/
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