New Perspectives Theatre Company

From August 2011

After two weeks I have finally managed to break free from the confines of the Traverse Theatre. A bit like leaving home for the first time: exciting to cut the apron strings but also a bit scary. No doubt I'll be back, probably in a matter of days.

New Perspectives is a touring theatre company based in the East Midlands. Farm Boy was one of the must-see shows of the 2010 festival. I didn't see it but they're back this year with two shows.

Often truth can be stranger than fiction and Those Magnificent Men tells the extraordinary story of Captain John Alcock & Lieutenant Arthur Whitten Brown who, in 1919, made the first non-stop transatlantic flight. This is a great example of how good theatre can both educate & entertain. From the very start Ian Shaw & Richard Earl ('a jobbing actor 3 months behind with his rent') draw the audience in & make them believe in what appears on the stage. Somehow these two manage to construct a Vicker Vimy bomber out of little more than a table & some dustbin lids. The clue is in the title: magnificent.

J.L. Carr's excellent 1975 novel How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won the FA Cup is surely the greatest ever book written about football. Possibly the greatest ever book written about sport. But you don't need to like football to enjoy the story of how a small village team rises from obscurity to win the FA Cup at Wembley. Mark Jardine plays the part of the club's honorary secretary Joe Gidner and also chairman Mr Fangfoss, the mysterious Dr Kossuth, in fact everyone. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll despair at the £34 million Barcelona have paid for striker Cesc Fábregas.

But is this story believable? I'll leave the answer to that to J.L. Carr himself: 'Ah, it all depends upon whether you want to believe it.'

Those Magnificent Men, Udderbelly Cowbarn, until 29th August
How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won the FA Cup, Gilded Balloon, until 29th August