Standing at the Sky’s Edge: National Theatre

The gritty Britty musical. The lives of 3 successive families in a flat on Park Hall, Sheffield, echoing each other, interwoven expertly on stage. A wide variety of good songs expressing love, hope, grief, anguish, anger. Good writing, good acting and, mostly, good singing. Some editing of songs and narration would be an improvement. ‘Sky’s Edge’ would be a better title. Received with an instant standing ovation.

The first half begins in 1960s hope, in a town assured of a good future because the world needs steel. It ends in apocalyptic disaster. The hopes of all families and of the community, of building Jerusalem in Sheffield through class warfare, die in grim end-of-industry reality

The second half begins sad, still bleak. A little hope that human love can still flourish. But a key man in both first families dies. The 3^rd resident, a Londoner retreating from a break-up with her lesbian partner, is eventually persuaded by her ex to meekly take her back, despite the ex’s portrayed scorn, manipulation and self-justification. The ex’s Scottish origin half hides her embodiment of London values. We are meant to celebrate this love but it is shown as far from the patient and kind, selfless, godly, version of love.

The disillusioned, despairing, first husband in Park Hall, the youngest foreman in the history of the now closed steelworks, tells his son, with passion, ‘I SEE you. I see YOU.’ A cry in the post-industrial wilderness. Sheffield today is portrayed as a world where men are not seen, and neither are the wider Sheffield community. The pro-gay locals demonstrate common disapproval of the London lesbian lover but are side-lined. London’s version of love, as London’s version of economics, currently holds sway.

Can the hope of building Jerusalem be resurrected? Is there a different building strategy to class warfare, a less military and more potent antidote to London’s ‘love the rich for the crumbs which fall from their table?’ Can the people, the men, of Sheffield be seen as people rather than as disposable human resource for the profit driven City of London? I hope we can build Christian Equitable Companies firmly on the basis of love your neighbour as you love yourself, love your Londoner no more than you love your Sheffield Steelmaker.

And I hope that an edited version of Sky’s Edge can be seen across the UK. The standing ovation in The National Theatre indicates this musical is good for the whole country.

Satanic mills to Jerusalem? January 31

Protestors and Capitalism: 12 November

Tags: Ani Capitalism, City of London, Sky's Edge Musical