04/07/2006
John Hobson reviews 'ASBO' performed by North Manchester's leading participatory theatre company, Moston Active Drama (MaD), at the Manchester's Library Theatre for two days.
ASBO - Library Theatre, Manchester (3rd and 4th July 2006)
Moston Active Drama (MaD).
ASBO is a comedy about urban survival performed by over twenty young people from North Manchester and set in the city's Moston district. It's in your face and quickly grabs the audience by the scruff of the neck.
Enmeshed in the quick humour, music and fantastic photographic backdrops are serious struggles about eviction, debt, unemployment and for the hope of respect and love.
Central to the plot is Calvin Longbottom who becomes Moston's 1000th recipient of an ASBO and as a consequence receives a cheque for £100 from the City Council. His mother then loses her job as the local bakery is taken over by an unscrupulous new owner. His sister is expecting twins and the landlord and loan shark are knocking at the door. Homelessness seems inevitable and things are looking bleak.
The drama unfolds chaotically but the apparently dysfunctional community eventually unites against the proposed gentrification of the local area.
Rich in local humour and provocative in its portrayal of urban youth culture, ASBO is a magnificent grassroots response to some immediate and hard urban realities.
Reviewed by John Hobson
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