Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Saul Murphy, Maggie Lynch, Charlie Griffiths, Sara Woodley, Eleanor Nelly, Jay Podmore, Jonathan McIntyre, Lynne Fitzgerald, Lesley Butler, Alan Walsh, Berbie Foley, Michael Swift, Marc J Morison, Rebecca Ray Johnson, Danny Marray, Holly Clarke, Rachel Waldock, Libby Drinkwater-Burke, Logan Drinkwater-Burke.

The scars of war never truly fade and that is arguably the truest sentiment when it comes to the devastation visited upon Liverpool and Bootle during the dark days of The Blitz. Any visitor to the city, any person who has lived in the two neighbouring towns, will still be overawed by the monuments to the dead and the long nights endured by the people during the campaign to bring the people to their knees.

These monuments are not set out as a shrine to the fallen, they are not fated such as some are in the Hands of Peace memorial in Birmingham Market and with the wreaths of rememberance placed at its plinth every November, these are the empty spaces where houses once stood along all parts of Bootle which have never been built on or the iconic shell of St. Luke’s Church, just up the hill from the new developments of Liverpool City Centre and in walking distance of the Unity Theatre in which Jo Mac’s Red Skies was lovingly performed and given great applause at its dramatic end.

Red Skies looks at the events leading up to a New Year’s Eve party in one of the shelters, the connections made and the opportunities lost, scattered to the wind and the truths of existence that come out, from why someone would lie about where they were every night, the sheer determination to carry on in the face of adversity, played out with great affection by Marc J. Morison and Charlie Griffiths and the thought of food being rationed and in which hunger and starvation was a very real and frightening prospect.

For Michael Swift as the devastated Tom, this will be remembered as a towering performance as the grief of losing his family in the air raids fills the theatre with intensity and a great sense of sympathetic concentration. Such was the force of his presentation that the waves of terror at being placed in his shoes was keenly felt across the audience as they took in the cries of anguish and lost hope.

With three great performances by the younger members of the cast, which encapsulated the feeling of the lost generation that never walked the streets of post-war Liverpool and would not get to see the city emerge as the leading cultural spot in the country, and the rest of the company all portraying the sensitive balance between shouldering the twisted fate dealt them and the urgency of making the most of life whilst there was still time, Red Skies still resonates almost 75 years on from the events shown.

There is always a reason to forgive such crimes against Humanity, on both sides of the divide, but such actions should never be forgotten should they be played out again. Jo Mac’s much admired play frames that point perfectly.

Ian D. Hall