Royal Exchange, Manchester.

19 September 2017.

The Royal Exchange’s stage is crowded with people sitting around tables, chatting and waiting for something to start. Everyone is dressed as if they have just walked in off the street and it isn’t obvious who are the audience and who are the cast. The setting is so mundane and the furniture so utilitarian, it could be a local community centre. When Youssef Kerkour interrupts the chatter it wouldn’t seem out-of-place for him to start calling out the numbers for a night of bingo. Instead he welcomes us to Grover’s Corners, a New Hampshire town as the 20th century dawns.

True to playwright Thornton Wilder’s vision, we are asked to imagine the town largely without the assistance of scenery, costumes or props. Kerkour is the Stage Manager and he sweeps his hands wide to show us where Main Street would cut through the tables…