On what would have been Shelagh Delaney's 76th birthday, a fitting tribute was staged at Salford Arts Theatre last night, reflecting the political, northern-soaked edge of Salford's most famous daughter.
This was no twee nostalgia fest, as a series of live events aimed to get into Delaney's soul and re-fire a bit of the shared Salfordian attitude that inspired the girl from Duchy Estate to take on the establishment.
After the audience had taken in the Shelagh Delaney inspired art in the foyer, the night began with the stage invaded by ten young people dissing the bulldozers that were about to take the roof and the innocence from their heads. From skipping around the streets singing The Big Ship Sails on The Alley Alley O, to packing a big red suitcase with a `Demolition' label, it was the dawning of a new destructive, divisive reality. And fairies weren't real.
A Slice of Life, devised and cleverly enacted by Salford Arts Theatre Young Performers Company, ended with Shelagh Delaney sitting by her typewriter composing a letter to Joan Littlewood pushing her first play depicting the Salford reality.
Next up was JB Barrington, the city's current top poet, performing a specially written tribute piece to Delaney, Gone With The Ships, that got the spirit spot on...
"I'm oh so glad and I'm oh so grateful
for all them words you wrote
Putting northerners on the map you never once doffed a cap
and you spoke just like us ordinary folk...
....You perfectly scripted the impaired and afflicted
and those that never chose to have holes in their socks
A voice for the poor that is sadly no more
gone with the ships that sailed on the docks"
(read the full `poem for Shelagh Delaney' click here)
JB doesn't just do ace poems, he has a nice line in local humour `A sold out show at Salford Arts Theatre, and no-one's paid...How Salford is that?'. After the well received Delaney tribute, JB launched into some of his other verse that comes straight from the estates of Little Hulton - The Bingo Queue and Spanish Dolls which got nods of recognition laughter all through the aisles.
From the easy wit of JB, Salford Theatre Company, with London Actors, had the difficult job of creating a drama from Shelagh Delaney's unfinished work, Now and Then.
They didn't try to put too many words into the set, just mimed an anti-materialist visual piece that began with a couple of working class characters, in shawl and cap, dancing to the tune of black-clad landlords and money men, and progressed through to the E Generation showing how little has changed. It ended with a clip of John Lennon's classic quote....
"Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it..."
Before a screening of Dance With A Stranger, organiser Louise Woodward-Styles took to the stage to explain why Shelagh Delaney is so important to Salford as its most famous daughter. She referenced Lowry, Finney and Powell as those who had been honoured, and asked `Where are the females?'
Last night, and throughout the Shelagh Fest, this was put right.
* For a full background to the Day see previous Salford Star article - The Politics of Shelagh Delaney Day - and follow the links - click here
* Main photo Salford Arts Theatre Young Performers Company portray a young Shelagh Delaney
Photos by Steven Speed
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