The north-west has been a hotbed of legendary nightclubs: Wigan Casino, the Twisted Wheel, the Hacienda, Dreamers in Oldham – well, maybe not Dreamers in Oldham, though its impact was every bit as significant for the generation of 1990s indie kids who have now created a musical in its honour.
Writers Cathy Crabb, Lindsay Williams and composer Carol Donaldson were all regulars at the club, which was accessed via a steep flight of stairs above an Indian restaurant, and notorious for a carpet so grungy it was advisable to wipe your feet on the way out. But the door policy was relaxed and the music counted as alternative – Dreamers was where you went to nurse a pint of Guinness and blackcurrant, dance to the Smiths and the Cure and plot starry-eyed escape routes out of Oldham.
Disaffected, pink-haired Izzy has grown up in care and dreams of a future as a holiday rep. For her best friend, Toni, any future that doesn’t involve inheriting her mum’s stationery shop will do, while her former best friend, Roz, is simply trying to get out from the shadow cast by a father who wasn’t quite the pillar of the community people took him for.
You have to applaud the Coliseum’s ambition in commissioning an original musical with a large, all-female cast and a dark undertow of child abuse. Nor is it the straightforward jukebox musical you might expect: Donaldson’s score alludes to the soundtrack of the era while creating elaborate set-pieces for an octet of professional actors and a large community ensemble.
Sally Carman makes a fabulously petulant Izzy, and a special mention ought to go to the authenticity of Jason Taylor’s lighting design – he met his wife beneath the dazzling strobes of Dreamers. The vertical ingress of Kate Unwin’s set looks a little hair-raising, but there’s no doubting the affection with which the writers have recalled their personal stairway to heaven.
- At the Coliseum, Oldham, until 4 July. Box office: 0161 6242829.
