While stages elsewhere are decked with holly and tinsel, Christmas just doesn’t
play a part in Alan Ayckbourn’s annual gift for all the family. The writer
and director prefers to offer up his own particular brand of storytelling.
Miss Yesterday is set next summer, a time and place when troubled teen Tammy
Laidlaw (Laura Doddington), struggling to get out of the shadows of ‘perfect’
brother Ian (Ryan Early), feels ignored by her upper middle class parents.
We know all this quite quickly as Tammy, a stereotypical teen who communicates
in silence, has the decency to narrate the tale for our benefit.
Tragedy strikes when Ian, whom Tammy’s best pal Roz (Saskia Butler) has
fallen in love with, has a fatal motorbike accident. This being Ayckbourn,
Tammy is offered the chance to change her ways and avert the accident by travelling
back in time. This non-linear feelgood play is Back to the Future meets It’s
A Wonderful Life and the production has a very cinematic feel.
John Pattison’s mood music, Pip Leckenby’s self-propelled sliding
set - which draws gasps of delight from the young audience - and Ben Vickers’
celluloid-replicating lighting are faultless. Doddington, who is a convincing
teenager, works hard to maintain the attention of the audience, as does sidekick
Butler. The rest of the cast aren’t warranted the same amount of stage
time but are all very adept.
Stories that feature time travel are, more often than not, moralistic. The
morals here are something of a muddle but the end result is still a nice enough
piece of entertainment.
Dave Windass
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