Originally published by L.S. Media. April 26th 2012.

L.S. Media Rating ***

Thanks to Mandy Romero’s insightful look at the Hertfordshire new town of Stevenage, it’s easy to see why it can hold fascination with those that flocked to the area after the war and the hold it has on some people.

Yes, it’s doesn’t have the history or romance of Liverpool, the urbanization of Birmingham or the charm of Edinburgh, but for those that want to escape the villages that make up the U.K. or whereas Mandy would put it, to escape the places that’s more effective than any C.C.T.V. could ever hope to achieve, these new towns that sprang up over Britain after the war offered a safe haven, a chance to start again.

Stevenage, is the oldest of these new towns and holds the distinction of having the 1968 film Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush forever tied to its roots and its star, the late Barry Evans, is remembered touchingly throughout as Mandy Romero draws parallels and weaves stories between the star of Clive Donner’s film and the boy who left a small rural Leicestershire village and got lost along the way and that of the new town itself.

The town might not be in every person’s thoughts, and it’s fair to say there will be a lot of people who have forgotten programmes such as the 1970’s comedy Mind Your Language and that the man with the boyish grin passed on after work had dried up and resulted in driving taxi’s for living. What those who attended the show at the Unity Theatre will not forget is the sincerity, honesty and show- girl attitude that transgendered star Mandy shows whilst in the middle of the floor of the Unity 2 space.

The audience were flanked on all sides by small scale models of the new town, the designs of what was envisaged to be a new start, a utopian paradise that became a nightmare for some but now seems to be enjoying the renaissance that was initially promised after the war.

These models also flanked the cat-walk feel that the space was to represent and as Mandy walked up and down the white line as she told her story, it was possible to think, not of someone parading clothes that ultimately end up on the charity rail in Oxfam but of someone shedding their skin, parading their life for all to see.

An interesting performance that touched a lot of hearts of those that attended the show.

Ian D. Hall