Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Michelle Buttery, Neil Caple, Ciaran Kellgren, Tricia Kelly, Emma Lisl, Joe McGann, Eileen O’ Brien, Alan Stocks.

The power of memory is one that can either hold you back so hard that it feels as if the weight of the future is too difficult to deal with, or can be such an aid in which it can only set you free. What if the place in which those memories are of also retains those memories, the very bricks and mortar that keep you safe from the outside world are able to hold onto an image of a time perhaps best forgotten?

Michael Wynne’s specially commissioned piece for the new Everyman Theatre’s first season, Hope Place, deals wonderfully with the memories we have and those in which leave us, those in which can bring us the greatest pleasure and those in which haunt us; all of which make us into the person we are today. The myths that we build up around ourselves, either for protection or out of some need valour and courage are nothing compared to the stories, legends and reliable history of a long standing building or even a town or city which harbours many of these memories within its comforting arms.

Hope Place looks at the life of Maggie and her brothers and sisters, their childhood growing up in Hope Place and the past that has somehow caused them to have a wedge, albeit fragile, rammed between them. When their mother dies, history has a way of making itself known to the present and through Maggie’s niece’s boyfriend, discovery and realisation is only a few clicks away but Maggie also needs help overcoming the past’s hold on to her memory.

This touching tale is one that deals with great care on how recollections are formed, loose ends and fragments of a young mind can play into the thoughts and day to day worries of grown woman and the way that memories are only ever as reliable as the information we give it.

With outstanding performances by the entire cast, including some fine work by some incredibly good young actors playing the adults in their formative years, Hope Place is one of those plays that deserves to be performed as often as possible and for as long as possible over the coming years. It is a play that will linger long in the memory of all who see it and for Ms. Eileen O’ Brien as Maggie, it was a fitting and adoring performance for one who has set the Everyman Theatre alight with wonderful artistic endeavour throughout.

A fitting and magnificent piece of work!

Ian D. Hall